The Mikaelson Papers
by Principles of Magic
Summary: Canon Compliant/Humor Fic. Cami has seven days to interview the entire Mikaelson family. Her only problem: the entire Mikaelson family.
1. Day One

**AN: I'm cleaning out old stories on my computer. Enjoy a comedy of psychoanalytical errors. Tag to TO Season 2.**

Checking your inbox first thing in the morning is a game of Russian roulette. There's always that one email waiting for you that can make or break your day. This morning, Cami wasn't so lucky. Setting down her coffee, she cautiously opened the message from her department chair…

 _Crap._

Her advisor had dropped dead overnight. It was sad, sure, but honestly not that surprising. Her thesis advisor was the sort of man who took his morning coffee with half and half – half a bottle of bourbon and half a pack of cigarettes. He used to show up to their weekly meetings with more problems than the patients she was studying, which was saying something since her degree was in Abnormal Psych.

So again, not surprising, but a gigantic inconvenience.

Cami was freaking out. While her thesis advisor exploring the great beyond, her proposal was in less than a week. Unless her dead advisor was willing to sign off on her project from the grave all the work she'd put into her current proposal was a complete waste. In terms of a research project, she was back to square one …with seven days and counting.

It was an utter disaster.

She needed a new project and a new advisor stat, but the only other faculty who didn't already have a student and would even be willing to take her on so last minute specialized in family psychology. She hesitated in sending a very desperate email to her potential new advisor. It was a long shot in the dark. Family psychology wasn't her specialty and she didn't even have a family to use for her research. And even if she did, the family would have to be pretty dysfunctional if she was ever going to be able to formulate an entire thesis around them.

And what family did she know in New Orleans willing and able to meet with her at the drop of a hat? She might as well just quit school now because where on earth would she ever find-

-wait…just _wait._ Hold the freaking phone. What was she even saying?

Slamming her laptop closed, Cami reached for her cell. She had the most reasonable Mikaelson on the end of the line in seconds.

"Elijah, thank God you answered."

"Camille, a pleasure. How can I help you?"

"Look, I need a favor. I know it's last minute, but I'm desperate. I promise that's the only reason I am asking."

"If I am able, of course."

"Well, that's the thing. It's not going to be easy."

"No?"

"In fact, I'm sure it's going to be impossible."

"Is that so." A pause. "Is this task that you request… dangerous?"

"I foresee some death threats, yeah."

"Should I involve Niklaus with this then?"

"He should be there, yes. _Most definitely_."

Elijah suddenly sounded very concerned. "Camille, are you currently in danger?"

"Only of failing out of school," she laughed.

Now Elijah sounded confused. "Then you have lost me. Just tell me: what do you need?"

"I need you to get your entire family in the same room, all of them, the entire Mikaelson clan. "

"That _is_ quite impossible."

"Please, Elijah. I have a week to find a new subject for my psychology thesis."

"And you wish to use my family?"

"It's not like you Mikaelsons couldn't use the free therapy. Trust me, Elijah, by the end of the week I promise I will have all of you in a better place."

"And that 'better place' will be the Other Side because we will have all violently murdered each other, Camille."

"See, what is up with all the anger and violence? What happened to just talking through your issues?"

"You have met my brother Niklaus…"

"…and his issues, yes, I have. In fact, I was going to write my whole thesis on him but now I have to focus on an entire family. Please, Elijah, just one week with the Mikaelsons…"

"…will drive you insane."

"Which I clearly am already since I'm recommending couch time for a brood of neurotic, abusive vampires and their psychotic witch of a mother."

"Do you think Esther is at the center of what ills my siblings?"

"That's psych 101, Elijah. Yes, I will need your mother too."

She could hear him considering her offer on the other end of the line. "Meet me at the Compound in an hour."

"Is that a yes?"

"I can make no promises."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Don't thank me just yet," Elijah said. "I will see you soon, Camille."

Cheering silently, Cami quickly emailed her potential new advisor, packed her laptop, her notebook and her DSM-5 and headed out the door. If she pulled off this week, and managed to survive it, this was going to be the best thesis ever.


	2. Day One, Part 2

Elijah Mikaelson had one hour to do the impossible.

When he had agreed to fulfill Ms. O'Connell's request it was honestly for entirely selfish reasons. Despite the desperate situation with Cami's academic career Elijah was doing this solely for the greater good of his family. When it came to his siblings at least, his family was both the carrot and stick. For ten centuries the urge to fix those around him had both driven him forward and held him back. What Cami was offering now was a chance, a real opportunity, to finally make some progress.

And while his faith in psychology was just about as strong as his faith in God, Elijah believed in Cami. He had seen the effect just her presence had on his brother and if she had somehow been able to survive her journey to the center of the worse of the Mikaelson siblings then maybe there was hope for him and the rest as well.

In Camille, Elijah had faith; in his ability to get all his family in the same room? Not so much.

Hanging up with her on the phone, he immediately began planning, preparing himself to do whatever it took to get his family to hear him out and consider Camille's offer. Fortunately, when it came to convincing, Elijah was well versed in all manners of persuasion, including the Mikaelson trifecta of bribes, lies, and brute force.

He decided his best bet would be his baby sister Rebekah. Absence made the heart grow fonder and normalcy and happiness had always been her raison d'être. She would certainly at least hear him out before letting him know he was being a fool and hanging up the phone… which was honestly as good as start as any.

"And he could call her without having to leave the couch, so there was that too.

"With his cell to his ear, he waited through the rings for his sister to pick up. "Elijah. What's happened?"

"Ah, Rebekah. All is well. Please do not fret. I am just calling because –"

"No."

"But I haven't even—"

"No, I'm not telling you where I am. It's called off the grid for a reason, brother."

"Oh," Elijah nodded, remembering their last conversation. Despite the danger to his baby niece, he was always desperate for confirmation that Rebekah and Hope were safe and happy in hiding. "Of course," he told her. "As long as you are well hidden, your secrets are your own, sister. I am calling about something else actually."

"What has Klaus done now?"

"Surprisingly nothing…yet."

"Then what is this about, Elijah? I am juggling a million things right now and its feeding time for one of them."

"Then I will make this brief and to the point. Camille O'Connell has approached me with an offer regarding our family."

"Cami? That blonde wisp Nik compels to type his memoirs? I thought he got bored of that pet project ages ago."

"It appears Niklaus has become the project."

"I don't follow."

"Camille wishes to interview each of us for a research project on family psychology."

"He held the phone away from his ear as Rebekah was laughing quite loudly now.

"And let me guess: you rang to ask me to participate?"

"An hour of your time, sister. That is all I ask."

"And what's in it for me?"

"A chance to speak your piece. You can even speak it to Niklaus if you wish, I'm sure Camille can arrange it. This is a golden opportunity, Rebekah. Klaus will be forced to sit quietly and listen to what you have to say."

"He will?"

"Elijah heard her wonder pensively on the other end of the line and he grinned, so sure he had her.

"So can I tell Camille you look forward to talking soon?"

"No," came his sister's firm reply. "This isn't going to work."

"No?"

"And you're a fool, Elijah."

Well, there it was, just as expected. He really had tried.

"I do hope you reconsider," he said, sighing in resignation. This wasn't looking good; if he couldn't get Rebekah onboard, the rest of them were hopeless.

But then Rebekah surprised him.

"I'm not really in hiding, am I, if every random human can just call me up out of the blue."

"Wait…so you are in fact agreeing to speak with Camille?"

"Oh, I wasn't saying 'no' to her request, Elijah. I'll do it. Let her know she can call me at this number. That's fine. No, I was simply expressing my condolences for whatever hope for our family you have riding on this silly exercise – it's clearly futile."

"Your enthusiasm, Rebekah, is infectious as always."

"I just don't want you to beat yourself up at the end of the week when absolutely nothing has changed, brother. What's that saying again? Something about tigers and stripes…or is it leopards and spots…?"

"Thank you for your cooperation, dear sister. Perhaps we will find ourselves talking again quite soon."

"Until then, Elijah, and good luck with the others. You are going to need it."


	3. Day One, Part 3

There was no time for a victory drink. Pulling on his jacket, Elijah was out the door in search of the next Mikaelson he deemed most amiable to Camille's request, his eldest brother Finn. Although he seemed to be going by Vincent nowadays and moonlighting as some sort of… educator. Elijah found this quite amusing; surely Finn would bore his students to sleep before he could possibly teach them anything useful.

He found his brother on the patio of an outdoor café with a stack of papers in front of him as thick as a man's fist.

Finn set down his red pen as he saw his brother approach. "Elijah. What a surprise."

"Not entirely unpleasant I hope. Forgive me if I am disturbing you…"

"Oh, don't bother with the pleasantries, Elijah. You clearly want something so come, sit down. You should at least be comfortable when I deny your request."

"Hmm," Elijah agreed. He took the empty seat across the table.

"So how can I complicate your life today, brother?" Finn asked, gesturing for Elijah to begin.

"Camille O'Connell."

"I know the name," Finn said, leaning back into his chair with folded arms. "What about her?"

"Earlier today she rang to inform me that she requires a…set of siblings."

"A set of siblings? Does she collect tiny glass animals too?"

"Not as far as I am aware," Elijah said. "Miss O'Connell has apparently joined the field of family psychology. She has the psychologist. No she needs the family."

Finn was laughing at him. "So let me get this straight: some human has you on a scavenger hunt for her. My goodness, Elijah, I would have thought with mommy dearest returned to the world of the living you'd have much more important matters on your hands."

"Well up until today I have been quite occupied with ignoring your existence."

"See? That there? That's not how you win friends, Elijah. No wonder you're so desperate for participants you've come to me."

"Actually," Elijah pointed out, "Rebekah has already agreed."

"Rebekah will do anything you ask of her."

"Perhaps," Elijah continued, "but I am here because I suspect our other siblings will do anything you tell them."

"Is that so?"

"You are the eldest. Certainly, you hold some sway in their decisions."

"It's hard to curry influence with one's family when you've spent nine hundred years in a box."

"The comfort of your coffin should have been some indication of our respect for you," Elijah said, hiding his amusement.

"If that were true then you and Niklaus would have joined Kol and I as witches long ago instead of continuing to occupy the bodies of vicious, bloodthirsty vampires who do nothing but cause death and destruction in their eternal wake."

"Now who's alienating their friends," said Elijah.

Finn tapped the table twice. "It's a 'no,' brother. Whatever you are here to ask of me, a solid 'no thanks.'"

Elijah glanced down at his watch, completely unfazed by his brother's refusal.

"Well, thank you for keeping that short."

"I aim to please," Finn grinned, watching his brother rise from his chair. He leaned back, stroking the side of his face in contemplation. He had not been lying when he told his brother he knew the name of Cami O'Connell. Finn couldn't help but break into a wide smile; he wasn't so surprised by the fact that Cami had found a new project after the death of her old advisor so much as that her new project was apparently the Mikaelsons.

Now talk about a conflict of interest! This was the last thing Finn had expected when he had written back to Cami that he'd gladly be her new advisor…

* * *

In hindsight, he probably should have just skipped Kol altogether. Nonetheless, his youngest brother had some vital information and so Elijah found himself at the Lycee next. While Finn knew Esther's current whereabouts, Elijah knew he would never give them up –talk about mommy issues. Kol, however, was a wild card and could perhaps be persuaded to play along nicely.

Perhaps.

Not really.

Actually never mind.

"Eh, big brother," Kol smirked. He bit lazily into an apple. "Come all the way out here to see little ol' me?"

"Back from the dead with a new body and yet you remain troublesome and tedious as ever. I am…impressed by your persistence, if nothing else."

The witches' classroom was gloomy, dusty, and doused in that delightful cemetery smell. Elijah walked around the broad table in the center of the room, noticing that any trace of magic or spellcraft had been swept clean before his arrival.

His mother had clearly known he was coming.

"And where is our mother now," he asked pointedly, knuckles on the table.

"How should I know?" Kol shrugged, grinning.

"Aren't you always at her heel?"

"That's Finn," Kol sneered. "What do you want, Elijah, I've got a thing at one."

"A thing? Are you referring to your date with Ms. Claire at the coffee shop on Royal?"

"No need to be the creepy brother, Elijah. Again that's Finn."

Elijah nodded, barely hiding his amusement. Then he remembered he was a man on a mission and the clock was ticking. "My intentions are benevolent, Kol, I assure you. I am here simply because I desire to gather the family together for a weeklong engagement."

"Are we taking a family trip someplace?" Kol teased, waggling his brow.

"A trip through our collective past, yes," Elijah said. "I will spare you the details but tell you nonetheless that a friend of mine wishes to speak to us on what I assure you will be a variety of informative and intrusive topics."

"Folks on the hot seat? Sounds like fun. Do I have to participate or can I just watch you all squirm?"

"Your participation is requested."

"And what's in it for me, mate?"

"To be honest, I don't believe I can offer you anything, Kol. All I can do is ask. So do I have your consent?"

"Yeah, alright," Kol mused, striking a pensive stance. "I'm in, but on my own time. If I feel like it, you'll see me. If not, eh." He shrugged, tossing his apple core into what Elijah was sure was nothing close to a rubbish bin.

"That is perhaps the best I could ever hope for," he said.

"Then if you excuse me, big brother, I've got a date…"

"But you are sure," Elijah pressed one last time, "that you have absolutely no information on our mother's whereabouts?"

"Do you think I would tell you if I did?"

"No."

"That's why you're the smart brother, Elijah."

Kol's phone pinged and he smiled, turning on the heel to head toward the door. "Well, it's been a nice chat, big bro. Sorry to pop off but I've got a pretty young thing downtown and I can't keep a lady waiting. Text me the address of that place for the interview or whatever so I can come watch everyone make fools of themselves. Laters!"

Elijah sighed, watching Kol leave. Glancing down at his own phone, he frowned at the time. The hour was up. Even if he did know where his mother was, tracking her down would have to wait until tomorrow. He was due back to the Compound now to meet Camille and with nothing to show for it.

Well, not entirely. There was still one Mikaelson sibling out there he had yet to approach...


	4. Day One, Part 4

"Miss O'Connell. Please, this way."

Elijah escorted Camille into the main parlor where it became immediately evident she was several Mikaelsons short of a full session. He gestured to the only other soul in the room who was currently refilling his glass.

"You will have to forgive me," Elijah apologized sincerely. "I tried my best."

"Well, given the request I guess I can't fault you."

"Camille," Klaus grinned, pulling himself away from the bar. "A sight for sore eyes, although I confess myself surprised. I expected you to be holed up in some pretentious coffee shop this entire week, slaving away at that proposal of yours."

"Funny you should mention that, Klaus. You see, I've run into a bit of a dead end…"

"Is that so? What happened?"

"As fate would have it my advisor dropped dead. I know! So now I need a new advisor and a new project."

Klaus raised his glass in her direction. "Easy enough, love. I'll compel you another one."

"I think Camille was considering a more ethical solution, Niklaus."

"Ah, right - psychologists and their ethics," he groaned. "Very well, the hard way it is. So what can I do for you, Cami?"

Cami raised a brow in Elijah's direction. "You didn't tell him?"

"The purpose of this meeting? I would never have gotten him through the door."

Klaus, frowned, sensing a trap. "Oh, just spit it out, Cami. What reprehensible act have I committed now?"

"Now?"

"Well isn't that why you're here? Cami O'Connell, holder of the almighty moral compass, come to hound me about another importune death?"

"I'm not here to pass judgment, Klaus. I'm just here to listen."

"Right, right, to listen to me recount every unnecessary death in the last thousand years. I know. Well, let me just tell you, love, it's a terribly long list. We'll be here for days."

"You have it all wrong," she said. "I'm just here to ask you for a favor, Klaus. For school."

Klaus was confused. He pointed between Cami and Elijah. "So…this isn't an intervention?"

"Not exactly…" Elijah admitted.

Unbelievably relieved, Klaus took a seat on the couch, pointing at Cami with his glass again. "Well, good," he said. "Because I don't have time for such rubbish. I'm a rather busy man, you know."

"You don't even have a job."

"Plotting the deaths of my parents is, in fact, a full-time job."

"And yet you found time to drop everything and meet with me today," Cami pointed out. She crossed her arms smugly, making Klaus laugh.

"Now, you have it all wrong, love. I'm clearly on my lunch break." He shook his drink at her. "But then, Elijah was rather forceful in his demand that I hear you out. So…here I am. At your service."

"Well, good, because I need a family to use as a subject for my thesis project."

"What? One tortured soul not enough for you?"

"I know the group therapy thing isn't really my area but like I said, Klaus, I've hit a dead end and I'm desperate. I have one week to meet with a family, one in critical need of…well, guidance. Then I write up a report based on our sessions and get it signed and approved by my advisor. That's if you help me. Or, you don't help me, I don't get this proposal passed, I waste an entire year of work and I fail to get my counseling license and can't practice professionally."

Klaus stared dead-on for a minute. "Then it appears I have no choice."

"So you'll help?"

"Well, let me see if I have this right: you need a family…for your study?"

"One that has a lot of things to talk about and a history of not being able to."

"And you think I can help you find a subject for your work? Simple enough. Which is it: should I compel you a family that has problems or compel a family to have them?"

"Neither, actually," Cami said, unamused. "I already have a family, in fact. I just need them to consent to meet with me."

"You already have a family?" Klaus wondered.

"Yes."

"So last minute?"

"Yes," she reaffirmed, her brow slightly raised. She waited for Klaus to come around, "and every single one of them can definitely use some couch time."

Elijah was finding it hard to hide his mirth at his brother's slow realization.

"Oh really, is that...wait..."

 _"Yes, Niklaus."_

"Bloody hell no!"

"Precisely," said Elijah.

Cami swept in. "Please, Klaus. Elijah's already agreed but I need you onboard or I will never convince the others."

"Elijah? The traitor-you knew about this ludicrous plan?"

"Only you would view an opportunity to heal our family as folly," his brother said.

"Heal our family?" Klaus barked in laughter. "I've just spent all morning trying to work a way to send half of them back to hell!"

"Which is an excellent place to begin our chat," Cami said. "Let's explore that more, shall we?"

Klaus glared at both of them, but mostly Elijah. "I knew this was a trap."

"Please, Niklaus, consent. If not for Camille, then for me, your brother."

"This is coercion! I feel personally attacked!"

"Good," Cami clipped. "We can talk about that more too."

"And what do I get out of this?" Klaus asked.

"My professional advice. For free."

"I get that anyway…anytime I talk to you…whether I want it or not," the hybrid said.

Cami crossed her arms. "Fine. Then, how about my eternal gratitude for helping me in my hour of need."

"Gratitude is a worthless currency."

"Niklaus…" Elijah murmured. He was begging his brother with his soft, brown eyes. They instantly caused Klaus to cave.

"Yes, yes, okay, fine. I agree. I'll do blasted thing…."

"God, thank you, thank you, thank you….!"

"…but there is no way I'm doing it alone."

"No, no you won't have to," Cami explained. "Elijah's agreed and now that you have too, I intend to meet with everyone: Kol, Finn, your parents…and if necessary anyone else who may be able to offer me insight."

Klaus got up and walked around the couch to refill his glass, talking as he poured. "Go ahead, interview every soul in New Orleans. I'm sure they all have wonderful things to say about me."

"I won't do any group work until I first go through the individual sessions. Like I said, Klaus: I'm here to listen so that you feel comfortable to talk. I'll reserve all recommendations until the end of the week and hopefully, we'll see some progress by then."

"This is crazy," Klaus concluded, replacing the stopper on the decanter.

"'Crazy' is not an actual diagnosis," Cami reminded him, taking a seat in a chair and pulling out her notebook. As Klaus returned to his seat on the sofa, Elijah touched Cami on the shoulder, excusing himself.

"I will leave you to it. Call me if he gives you any grief."

"You're leaving me alone, brother? With the shrink?"

"Isn't that the point of all this, Niklaus?"

"I'll only keep you an hour," Cami explained. "Then you can go right back to planning the death of your family, though hopefully, I can convince you to wait at least until the week's out. For the sake of my career if nothing else."

As Elijah left the living room, Klaus reached his arm over the back of the couch, grabbing the entire bottle of bourbon. Cami frowned with disapproval. "Are you seriously going to drink through this our session?"

Klaus poured his glass to the rim. "Do your worse."


	5. End of Day One

Cami tapped the edge of her notepad with her pen, trying to bring Klaus' focus back to answering her last question. "An answer would be nice, sometime within the next forty-nine minutes would be excellent."

"You have a horrible bedside manner," the hybrid said.

"Those are doctors, Klaus. I'm a therapist."

"I see no difference."

He was refusing to answer her opening question and had already spent ten minutes of their hour giving her the runaround. "I thought you were going to start with the easy questions," he said.

Cami exhaled, resisting the urge to restlessly click her pen. "Klaus, I have known you for months. I think we can skip the basics. And honestly, when it comes to you, there are no easy questions."

"Fine," he relented. "If only to speed this circus along. My answer is: devilishly handsome."

"Devilishly?"

"What's the matter? You asked me for three words I would use to describe myself and I have now given them to you: feared, formidable, and devilishly handsome…or roguishly attractive, either works."

"That last one was actually two words," said Cami.

"Next question."

"That's not how it works, Klaus. I'm leading this interview and I will move on when I feel like you are ready. Given your glib answers to my last question, I think we need to remain on the topic of self-perception for a little longer. So, let's proceed: Klaus, how do you truly see yourself?"

"Easy. I see myself standing up and walking out of this room in thirty seconds."

Cami sighed. "I'm not here to torture you, Klaus, I really am aiming to help. I promise you, I'm not trying to waste your time."

Klaus frowned but relented. He sat back, ready to listen.

"Thank you," said Cami, turning back to her papers. "Let's see - looking through my notes, I have here that in the past you have described yourself as….a 'manipulator, liar, and bastard.' Care to comment?"

"How is _that_ your notes?"

"Let's call it an excerpt from your memoirs."

"Ah, yes. I forgot that you remember all that now. Nevertheless, those words are out of context, Camille. They are my brother's words, not mine."

Cami slowly lowered her notepad. "Elijah called you those things?"

"Over the years and in his way, yes."

"And why do you think he said that about you?"

"Because Elijah is more than happy to judge a book by its cover, love."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No. Next question."

"Nice try," she warned him, "but you can't hide behind deflections, Klaus."

He grumbled, shifting in his seat. "Elijah is His Righteous Holiness. Go ask him yourself how the view is from his high horse."

"I most certainly will," Cami said, "but right now it's your hour, Klaus. So 'manipulator, liar, bastard'….not your words, I understand, but then care to tell me how you'd rather others describe you?"

"I already told you," he smirked. "Devilishly handsome."

Cami sighed in resignation. "Fine. Noted."

She jotted his three words on the pad of paper, flipping to a new page. Then she clicked the end of her pen, thinking; she had hit a wall with Klaus and it was time to try another approach. "Okay, let's move on to your relationship with your siblings."

"This is ridiculous," Klaus grumbled, hiding in his drink. "How on earth did Elijah convince me to do this?"

"Actually it was me who convinced you, because I was in a tight spot and you, being a good friend, Klaus, wanted to help me."

"'Friend'? That's your diagnosis, love, not mine."

"Friendship is not a disease, Klaus. In fact, it sounds like you are a bit confused about what the word 'friend' even means…did you have many friends growing up?"

"I see what you're doing."

"That's a 'no,' isn't it?"

"You don't need friends when you have four siblings."

"Your siblings?" She checked her notes. "That's Kol, Rebekah, Elijah, and Finn?"

"Finn doesn't count. The most fun Finn ever been was the years he spent in that box."

"The coffin you mean…because you daggered him…"

"If you knew him, Cami, you'd see I was doing everyone a favor."

"And how long was Finn in a coffin."

"Nine hundred years," Klaus said proudly.

"My God…what did he do to deserve that?"

"Simple, love. He existed."

Cami looked at Klaus intently before silently scribbling on her paper pad. Klaus leaned in close, trying to read her notes on him. "What horrible things are you writing about me now?"

"Paranoia," she said.

"That's what you wrote?"

"No," Cami huffed. "That's what I'm suggesting you suffer from paranoia, the temper of a three-year-old, some serious trust issues…"

Klaus frowned, leaning back into the couch cushions. "You would have trust issues too if everyone you've ever known had tried to kill you."

"Including your siblings?"

"Especially my siblings," he admitted. He then stood to refill his glass.

"But you forgave them, didn't you?" Cami asked Klaus. She followed him with her eyes around the room. "I mean you seem to be on fairly decent terms with all your siblings at the moment."

"Except Finn," she was reminded.

"I'll just cross Finn off the list," Cami said. She hoped it would put Klaus at ease.

"Now, Elijah," Klaus went on, pouring from the decanter, "spent some time with a dagger in his chest for his fratricidal delusions."

"And Rebekah?"

A dangerous expression crossed the hybrid's face before it softened it lazy indifference. "What about Rebekah?" he asked.

"Did you ever end up forgiving her?" Cami prompted.

Klaus walked around the edge of the couch, choosing to remain standing as he approached. "You can ask Marcel how that story ended. which shouldn't be a problem given that you two have been spending a nauseating amount of time together."

Cami put down her pen, setting her notepad on her lap. "You're deflecting again, Klaus."

"Nonsense. I thought you wanted to get to know me better and now you know I'm not a fan and you and Marcel."

"It's none of your business."

"It's it my business, sweetheart. I can't have my therapist distracted when I need _so much hel_ p…"

Cami just shook her head. "'Aggressively protective,'" she said, getting out her notes again and adding another observation to her already extensive list.

Klaus loomed in closer, still trying to catch what she was writing. "Well, you certainly have the handwriting of a doctor…"

Cami hid her notes against her chest, sighing as she looked up. "Sit down, Klaus, or I will bring out the hard questions."

"Oh I'm sure you will," he grinned, but he took his seat once more. "Do your worst, love."

Cami didn't miss a beat. "How do you feel about the death of your child?"

"No."

"Klaus…"

"No, we are not talking about this. That topic is off the table."

"I think the very fact that you don't want to talk about the death of your daughter means you need to. Klaus, you've repressed your feelings for so long that we need to work together to draw them out. Don't worry about getting the words right, just, tell me whatever comes to your mind when you think of the child you lost."

He shot out of his seat so fast, Cami was afraid he was going to run.

"Klaus—"

"Bourbon."

"What? Bourbon? That's the first word you associate with children?"

"'Bourbon' as in: I need more bourbon if you are going to force me to sit here and remember things I'd rather forget."

"I am not forcing you to do anything," she reminded him. "The patient has to want to be helped or we are both just wasting our time. But you know what I think, Klaus? I think that since you not only agreed to sit with me for an hour but have managed to stay through most of that time that you aren't fooling me into thinking you don't want to be helped."

"You may be right," he admitted, filling his glass again, "but you are expecting too much progress for just the first day."

"The first day?" Cami blinked several times. "I was under the assumption that an hour of your time was all I was going to get. Did something we discussed today change your mind?"

"How about this," Klaus gestured openly. "Let's save the hard questions for tomorrow."

"So you are willing to meet with me again? Tomorrow? That's… that's fantastic, Klaus. Let's say tomorrow afternoon. Same place?"

"It's a date," he smiled. "I'm sure by then I'll be drunk enough anyway."


	6. Day Two

"Thank you, Elijah, not just for sitting with me today but for getting Klaus to sit with me yesterday."

"And how long did my brother last in your company?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"That's five more than I had waged," Elijah said. He was perched on the edge of the couch in the Compound's parlor, ready for his first session with Camille.

She smiled back, turning to the section of her notebook she had dedicated for Elijah. "Klaus has actually agreed to meet with me again this afternoon."

"Is that so? I call that progress."

"Slow, but steady," she nodded, "but it's your turn now. The clock starts now, Mr. Mikaelson."

"I am at your service," he said graciously. "Please, begin."

"Elijah, you agreed to help me yesterday, correct?" Her tone suddenly very professional. "Thank you, again."

"You needed a favor. I was happy to help."

"Then that's my first question for you, Elijah: why? I called you out of the blue with an unreasonable, impossible request and you agreed. You even agreed to track down your mother for me, an acquaintance you only know through your brother. Call me curious but I have to ask: why did you agree to help…honestly?"

Elijah looked on coolly. "I perceived your offer to be a singular opportunity for my family, Camille. I would be amiss if I failed to at least attempt to make them see that too."

"So, herding everyone to family therapy - do you feel that to be your job as the eldest brother?"

"I am actually not the eldest. Not anymore at least."

"So that would now be…?"

"Finn."

"Ah." She scribbled in her notes: "the coffin guy."

"As he likes to remind people, yes."

"And how many siblings did you have altogether growing up?"

"Five," Elijah answered, a bit surprised by such a straightforward question.

Cami didn't need to consult her notes to remember what Klaus had told her. "Any idea why your brother told me he had _four_ siblings? He said Finn, you, Rebekah, Kol—"

"And Henrik."

Elijah blinked, suddenly still. "I doubt Niklaus' oversight was intentional," he added.

"Ah, nope," she chided, "that's for me to decide. I'm the psychologist, remember?" She made a note to ask Klaus about the discrepancy later. "This is your hour, Elijah. Let's focus back on you."

He narrowed his eyes, wondering what she'd ask next.

Cami's eyes twinkled. "So, you're a sharp-dressed, educated, well-traveled man, Elijah. Who are the lovely ladies in your life, or have you simply broken too many hearts?"

Elijah gulped. His expression was a mix of strained amusement and dread. Collecting himself, he executed a flawless deflection. "I don't break hearts, Camille, I prefer to rip them out of people's chests."

Her brows shot into her hairline. "Please tell me that's not how you break up with someone."

"No," he laughed. "Just a bit of light humor."

Cami underlined something several times in her notes, suddenly flipping back a few pages to check to follow-up on something from before…

"So, let's start with Tatia."

Elijah sat up straight as an arrow.

"How do you-?"

"Klaus," she said. "I asked him for a list of the women you have been involved with. Tatia's at the top of that list; Klaus told me she was a girl from your village back when you were human. So, was that the first time you fought with your brother…over Tatia?"

Elijah stared idly at the back of his hand, obviously uncomfortable with the current conversation. "The quarrel did not last long," he revealed.

"Oh? How come?"

"She died."

"Ah."

With a swift stroke, Cami crossed off Tatia's name. "Okay, how about this next name on my list: Katherine?"

"Katerina," Elijah corrected her. "An exquisite beauty."

"Oh, really? And what did she look like?"

"Tatia."

"Huh…"

Cami frowned, flipping back a page and wondering if she'd missed something. "So, am I getting this right? Katherine…Katerina…looked just like Tatia?"

"Yes, and to hurry this along so did Elena."

"Who?"

Elijah frowned, leaning forward in an effort to glimpse Cami's notes. "Elena Gilbert," he repeated slowly. "Is she not on your list?"

"No."

"Oh."

Elijah shifted awkwardly. "Never mind then."

Cami scratched her head simply. Talk about men who had types! Whatever was going on with Elijah's love life, Cami wasn't so sure she had the training…or the desire…to tackle it. She was starting to think that Klaus had only been eager to hand over the list of Elijah's past lovers knowing the embarrassment it would bring him.

Which, to be honest, was typical Klaus.

"You know," she conceded, "let's skip the list of epic loves and just fast forward to now."

"Now?" Elijah feigned poorly. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Do you currently have anyone special in your life?"

A beat from Elijah. "Camille O'Connell, are you asking me out?"

She set down her notepad and stared Elijah down, just daring him to wipe that smirk off his face. "Elijah Mikaelson. I may owe you my entire professional career but don't think that means I'm going to let you run circles around me for an hour. You're just as bad as your brother."

"Now that's something I haven't heard in a while," he grinned.

Cami was not amused. Just because Elijah desperately wanted the rest of his family in therapy didn't mean he didn't have to take their time together seriously…far from it. Her grace period with him was over; time to ask the hard questions.

"Hayley Marshall," she threw out. "First word that came to your mind when I said her name."

Elijah failed horribly at keeping the emotion off his face. Cami watched him intently as he kept silent, presumably trying to select just one of the hundreds of words that had exploded across his consciousness at the mention of Hayley's name.

She shook her head knowingly when he failed to respond. "Commitment…issues," she wrote, in dramatically, and in big letters across the page.

Elijah frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Well, I asked you to pick one word, you can't even do that."

"It's complicated," he murmured. "With Hayley, I mean."

"Clearly," she gestured. "So let's talk about her."


	7. Day Two, Part 2

Despite the massive hand cramp, Cami continued to write down Elijah's response: "…but now Hayley spends her time regaining autocracy for the werewolves and I am busy with Niklaus. As always. So no."

She paused, setting down her pen. "No? No, what?"

The Original looked puzzled. He came forward in his seat. "You asked me, Camille, if I had recently talked to Miss Marshall."

"I asked you that forty minutes ago," she said. "And I asked whether you two had talked about your _feelings._ But perhaps let's move on."

Elijah sat awkwardly, listening for the clime of the clock. He had been off-topic for nearly an hour, an expert at deflection, and Cami was starting to learn that even the most willing participant could be a handful. "Okay," she exhaled. She flipped to a new page in her notes. "Thank you for sharing… all of that. At least now I have the background for my next question."

"More questions?" Elijah balked. "I would have thought this topic was exhausted."

"Why still have answered my first question to you."

Elijah sat up straighter. "I don't quite remember what it was."

Cami seriously doubted that. "It's word association, Elijah. Simple. I say a word and then you tell me the first thing that pops into your head. Ready?"

Fine, he'd play along. The first thing that came to mind at the mention of...

"Hayley Marshall."

"Hope."

 _Ah, damn._

"Hope?" Cami wrote down the odd response. "Peculiar answer."

Elijah closed his eyes as he realized his mistake. Secret nieces were meant to be secret!

No problem; the situation was salvageable. "If I can explain," he began. "I meant to say that… that I feel Hayley Marshall holds some…some _hope_ for this family. She has, in fact, become part of this family. She has brought out a side of my brother that I feared was lost, a part of him that I have not seen since we were children. Even with the loss of their child, I believe that that Hope…

 _Oh, come on, Elijah. Try that again._

"…that hope - that glimpse of Niklaus' redemption - is still alive."

 _Smooth._

Still, Ehe wanted to smack himself for being so transparent. Fortunately, Camille didn't know Hope's name, or even that she was alive, which was fortunate since he'd given all that away in his stupidity.

"Elijah Mikaelson, always the optimist," she said.

"Quite," he agreed, hoping to move on.

"And do you always worry about your brother's redemption?" she asked next.

"It is my singular goal in this immortal life."

Cami nodded, making a note for later.

"Let's hold that thought for another time and go back to Hayley. You told me what Hayley means to your brother but what does she mean to you?'

Elijah had to admit that Camille was persistent. "If there was ever something there, things have changed. She is a hybrid now. She is a queen to her people. Perhaps that moment, that connection, has simply faded away."

"Not very optimistic there, Elijah."

He had to agree. "It seems that with both my mother and father intent on the destruction of me and my siblings, my optimism is reserved for the continuation of the vampire species."

"Could your mother really wipe out all vampires?"

"Every vampire in existence derives from an Original Bloodline. Niklaus' is quite…prolific."

"Marcel…"

"Indeed. So you see why it's important that my life remain...undistracted. For the moment."

"Undistracted? Ah. Because you haven't talked to Hayley in weeks."

"Another topic, perhaps?

Cami spared a glance at her watch.

"Well, actually that's enough for today."

"Good riddance."

"Huh?"

"I said, thank you, Camille. When do you want me next?"

She checked her day planner. "I'm meeting with your brother this afternoon…you know what, why don't we just do a joint session. I'll talk to both at you at once."

"How positively delightful."

Cami frowned, questioning his sincerity. "You know, Elijah, you always want what's best for you family. I think you're forgetting what's best for yourself."

"Meaning?"

"You'll get more out of our sessions if you let yourself be a little vulnerable."

Elijah's downcast eyes revealed his remorse. It was not his intent to make a charade of Camille's compassion, generosity, and genuine willingness to help. "Perhaps I was somewhat…guarded today."

 _Yeah, somewhat._ Cami stood, tucking her notepad into her bag.

"I need you to be a model of honesty and openness, Elijah, not just for me but for your siblings. Klaus is not going to open up to me if he sees you being all dodgy. He looks up to you, you know. He'll follow your example."

Elijah considered Cami's words from the couch, watching as she put on her cardigan and checked that her phone was in her bag.

"I should get some lunch."

"Let me escort you out," he offered.

"No need," she said. "I can do that myself. You just make sure Klaus shows up this afternoon. And sober."


	8. Day Two, Part 3

It was barely three in the afternoon and already the brothers were in their third argument of the day.

"Why are we here, again?"

"Niklaus, did you not say you'd prefer not to do these sessions alone?"

"I meant if _I'm_ going to be miserable, I want my siblings to be miserable too! I didn't mean I wanted us all miserable together and in the same bloody room..."

Cami sat again in her chair in the Compound's main parlor. Elijah and Klaus sat on opposite ends of the couch, as far from each other as possible. Klaus was indulging in a late liquid lunch and Elijah was rubbing his temples and doubting his ability to sit beside his brother for the next sixty minutes.

Cami began by stating the obvious. "It appears neither of you had a very good day."

"No question about it," said Klaus. "Any morning, evening, or night my mother is still alive and my brother distracts me from my quest to kill Mikael is far from good."

"I was not distracting you, Niklaus. I was reminding you that you had an appointment to keep," said Elijah.

"I don't need my big brother to keep my play dates for me," Klaus countered.

"You were already half an hour late when I came upstairs to fetch you."

"Because I was polishing my daggers to defend myself against my family's slanderous attacks!"

Cami slapped her notepad on her knee. "Please tell me you didn't bring a sibling stabbing mystical sleep dagger down here with you?"

"You're gonna have to be more precise," Klaus grinned. "That could be any old dagger."

Cami frowned. Maybe this joint session idea wasn't the best plan after all. "Okay," she blew out. "Clearly some ground rules are in order. One: there is to be absolutely no daggering of siblings in my sessions, _Klaus._ This is a safe space, for everyone. I will not even have threats of daggering…or threats of stuffing your siblings in coffins."

"Unless it's Finn," Klaus added and even Elijah smiled.

"He loves it in there," he said.

Cami sighed.

"Two: _since_ it is a safe space and nothing you discuss today will leave this room unless you give me permission to share it, I want good, honest attempts at answering my questions, go that? _Elijah?_ "

The tailored Original made an open gesture to signify his commitment. Klaus, of course, was thrilled that Cami had directed her second rule at his brother; he wondered impishly what had happened in their session that morning that required such a pointed warning.

Cami shot him a sharp look. "Rule number two most definitely applies to you too," she warned him.

The Original Hybrid just shrugged, unable to wipe the smirk from his face.

"Let me remind you that you both volunteered to be here," said Cami. "I know we've had a bit of a bumpy start but I feel really good about today. I think we can make some good insight, ask some good questions, maybe get used to the idea of self-reflection?"

"Like writing our thoughts in a diary? Oh, Elijah's already got tons of those…"

"And if you put pen to paper every time you thought before you acted, _brother,_ you would at least have filled a journal of your own, if not a single page."

Cami didn't know if she should take notes on the brothers' bickering or try to stop it. She decided to play spectator for a while longer. Klaus had turned in his seat to face his brother, waving his tumbler wildly.

"If I had a diary it would say: Today I daggered Elijah. Finally some peace from his endless prattling and posturing."

"How eloquent, Niklaus. Your ability to wax poetic at the expense of your siblings is an inspiration as always."

"Oh come, Elijah. No need to imagine what you would write about: Dear diary, today my dastardly brother killed someone. What a monster. How fortunate that I am so confident in my appearance that I have never to look in the mirror and realize I am a monster as well."

Cami had to hit pause. "Let's maybe come back later to the things I think I'm hearing."

Which was mostly "as soon as Cami lets us go I am going to strangle you."

"I have some guiding questions," she explained, "but I'm really just looking for an organic discussion here. So, whatever you feel like expressing, Klaus – Elijah - express it."

She looked down at the list of prepared questions. "Klaus," she began.

"No, skip me. I can't possibly follow your rules if I'm not drunk."

He stood and made his way around to the bar leaving Cami to skip to question two. "Okay, then. _Elijah_. Are you ready to start us off?"


	9. End of Day Two

Elijah was ready to do better than this morning as Cami began. "You stated in our session earlier that your goal in life is your brother's redemption."

She had to ignore Klaus' laughter in order to finish the question.

"Elijah, why, even after a thousand years, is this still your goal and why do you feel Klaus needs redemption in the first place?"

Klaus was now laughing even harder, which at least gave Elijah time to think. He watched his brother finish filling his glass and return to the couch with a disillusioned gait. Klaus then leaned back into the sofa, one arm along the back, and broke out into a grin. "Oh, this is good," he said. "I'm curious to know myself. The suspense alone is delicious."

Cami frowned. "This isn't meant to be entertaining," she said. "Elijah… whenever you are ready, the floor is yours."

Elijah was ready: open and honest.

"Our mother turned us into vampires," he began. "But we lost our way and our sense of self and turned ourselves into monsters. In time, I do believe Rebekah and I learned to…reconnect, let's say, with our humanity. My brother, however, is a slow learner."

Klaus snorted into his drink. "What my brother means to say is that Rebekah and he became boring over the years and forgot that being a vampire means you don't have to play by the rules. That includes whatever rules of morality you pride yourself in, Elijah."

Elijah ignored his brother's comment and addressed Cami directly. "Since Niklaus is so charmingly stubborn on the matter of his humanity, you see now, Camille, why my quest for his redemption is my singular afflication."

"That and your insufferableness," Klaus couldn't help but say.

Cami ignored that comment too, looking up from her furious notes. "But why is Klaus' salvation your burden specifically, Elijah? Especially when I think it's clear he has no interest in any sort of self-improvement."

Elijah did take a moment to wonder for himself. "Because perhaps I am the one of us who still remembers how he used to be…"

Klaus swooned, "...and here we go!"

"…and perhaps," Elijah continued. "Perhaps, I am partly responsible for why Niklaus," he sighed, "…is Niklaus."

Cami halted her pen mid-stroke, looking up. She suddenly recalled the vision Klaus had shared with her of his past, months ago after he had compelled her memories away and Davina had gotten them back. She knew exactly what Elijah was alluding to: "You mean the hybrid curse your mother put on him …and how Mikael abused him."

"I'm right here you know," Klaus griped. "Sitting right here. In the same room as you!"

"Are we talking now?" Cami smiled. "I hadn't realized you were ready to rejoin the conversation, Klaus."

The hybrid grew very still. "Just to speed this unfortunate conversation along, I can tell you right now why Elijah's so hung up on my redemption. Guilt; there's your one word, love. Elijah's still thinks he didn't do enough to protect his little bastard of a brother."

"I didn't."

"You couldn't, Elijah! If you stood against Mikael he would have struck you down too."

Elijah pivoted sharply. "And what about Esther, our mother? Niklaus, I should not have aided her the way I did in binding your werewolf side."

Klaus laughed it off. "This is all old news. The hybrid curse was sorted in the end, and I ascended to the creature I am today. Part wolf; part vampire. All power. How's that for self-actualization, Camille?"

Cami was on her fourth page of notes. She was really getting somewhere now. "Elijah, how would you wish to see your brother?" she asked.

The tension left Elijah's shoulders and he eased back into his seat. "I wouldn't mind if he learned to care about someone other than himself," he said.

"Nonsense," Klaus retorted. "I care about Rebekah and you…more often than not."

"And I presume a modicum of respect for the joys of human life would be too much to ask?"

"Ugh, humanity. So tedious…"

"And yet you used to revel in it, brother. As a child you knew nothing about the world or your place in it and yet you had such a passion for life, for beauty and art, a wild, innocent curiosity and so much love, despite and in face of everything."

Klaus didn't want to hear it. "Save the sentimental drivel for your diary, Elijah."

"But what happened to you, Niklaus? What happened to that child?"

"Good question, brother: where did I go wrong?" He jerked forward to the edge of his seat. "Was it Mikael's brutality…or our mother's lies that made me the way I am? Maybe I became a monster when I turned into a vampire…or was it after my first transformation when I realized I was both an abomination _and_ a bastard. The son that no one wanted…oh, but at least my dear, dear siblings vowed to stay by my side, to never leave me, always and forever - right, Elijah? What a joy; a thousand years with the two of you: my treacherous sister and my deferential brother. Surely I'm not merely the most powerful creature on earth but the luckiest one as well!"

With a resonating sigh, Elijah set his jaw and turned to Camille. "That was sarcasm, by the way."

"Figured," she agreed. But she wrote down what Klaus had said anyway. There were a lifetime worth of issues packed into Klaus' response; three thesis chapters right there.

Klaus had sprung up to fix a new drink, but Cami needed him back on the couch and talking. "Let's leave Elijah to the side for a moment and just you and I talk," she said to him.

It worked. Klaus took his seat again. "Or Elijah could leave altogether," he suggested. It annoyed him to no end that his brother remained so calm and collected after an hour of this torture.

"Actually, we still have ten minutes on the clock," Cami noted. "In the time we have left, let's you and I work through some of the things you just revealed to Elijah."

"Oh, that's nothing new," Elijah offered, almost bored. "I've heard it all before. That was basically my brother's away message."

"Is this correct, Klaus? Do you feel that the actions of others define who you are?"

The hybrid perked up. "Ah, finally – an easy question. No."

"No? You just listed everyone who has ever hurt you in life: Mikael, Esther, your siblings…Elijah asked you why you are the way you are and you gave me a list of other people."

"That's the short list." He smirked. "I can get you the full list by Thursday."

Cami closed her notes. "Klaus, do you not feel that if you wanted to make a change in your life, that you could?"

He folded his hands, leaning in with a grin. "I'm an all-powerful immortal, sweetheart. I'm the Original Hybrid. Why would I ever want to change?"

"For your child, perhaps, if she had lived?"

Klaus froze.

"Wouldn't you have wanted to be a better person for her?" Cami added.

Klaus' breathless expression said it all. Cami's questions had caught him off guard. Perhaps he had a response, but whatever Klaus was thinking was having a hard time coming out as English.

Elijah was on the edge of his seat, as well, eager to hear his brother's answer. Cami might not have known the baby was still alive, but he knew Hope would – and was already - having an amazing impact on his brother. Elijah wanted nothing more than for his brother to realize as much for himself.

But Cami's phone began to ring, interrupting everyone's thoughts.

"I'm sorry, just one second, it could be my advisor."

She stood to take the call, excusing herself into a corner of the parlor to answer her phone. She didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"

"Is this Cami?"

She knew that voice. "Rebekah?"

"Elijah gave me your number. Told me to ring if I have some free time."

"Well, thank you, for calling. You are all helping me out big time. In fact, I am currently talking to two of your brothers right now?"

"Oh, really? Which ones?"

"Suits and Daggers."

Rebekah laughed. "Impressive. Elijah and Klaus in the same room."

"On the same couch," Cami added.

"You know, I like you, Camille. Perhaps I was wrong about you. You have spunk…and daring. Obviously. That or you're straight up mental."

"Thank you?"

"Any time. So when do you want to schedule this thing?"

Cami glanced toward the brothers. Klaus was emptying the decanter and Elijah was watching her intently, too polite to voice his exhaustion. They both needed a break from the couch.

"How's first thing in the morning?"


	10. Day Three

Cami set her laptop on the coffee table in front of the two Originals. The screen blinked on and after a few moments of clicking and calling Rebekah appeared. Her smile brought the third day of family therapy to a start.

"Well, look at that," Rebekah chirped, peering through her screen. "I guess this dreadful technology has its uses after all. Hello, Elijah. It's good to see your face again."

Klaus rolled his eyes, drawing himself forward on the couch. "And what am I? Invisible?"

Elijah laughed. He seemed more at ease this morning, lots of calming hues in his tie and his suit a light navy blue. Klaus had dressed in opposition, on the other hand: in opposition to his brother's open attitude and to the joint session in general. Lots of red. Lots of anger. Not that he saw the connection.

But Cami had already written down her first impressions of the brothers and was eager to see what happened when their only sister was thrown in the mix.

She pulled her chair around toward the computer and clicked her. "I don't really have any specific questions at the moment, so I'll just observe for now," she explained. "I'm sure the three of you have a lot of catching up to do."

Elijah spoke up, assuming the role of moderator in the presence of both siblings (or so Cami wrote). "Thank you for finding the time, Rebekah. I hope we can all help Camille as much as she can help us," he said.

"I've agreed to chat, but let's keep it quick. I might be needed any moment."

Klaus perked up, catching the meaning in her words. Hope was likely sleeping in the next room. If only he could see his daughter, even for a moment, to know she was okay.

He tried to pull the information from his sister. "Is…are…are you alright? Safe?"

"And happy, Nik. Promise."

Cami chewed on the end of her pen, intrigued by the look that passed between brother and sister. Having had a sibling of her own, she knew the signs of a shared secret. She hoped she might uncover it; she couldn't write a thesis on what she didn't know.

She interrupted cautiously. "If time is short, perhaps we should start. I have my some questions -"

"You said no questions!" It was Klaus. In a huff. Already.

"I said no specific questions," said Cami. "But I do have some guiding questions. Nothing to be afraid of as long as you're honest. Rebekah, perhaps you would want to start? You haven't seen your brothers in quite some time…anything you want to say to them?"

"I hope they're behaving themselves," she said. "You couldn't pay me to be there in person, Cami. I'm sure Nik's sitting on one of his bloody daggers right now."

Elijah scooted further from his brother. Klaus rolled his eyes.

"No one needs to worry," Cami said. "Daggers of all kinds have been banned from these sesssions. I've already had a talk with both of your brothers, Rebekah, and they have agreed to aim at some level of maturity today."

She looked at both of the brothers pointedly before turning back to Rebekah. "You'll be safe to freely speak your mind."

"Good, because I actually have a bit of a list…"

"Of grievances?"

"Of all the ways Klaus has attempted to ruin my life."

"Oh, poppycock!" Klaus sneered. "Is this an intervention? A trap? Why have you forced me to listen to this libel?"

"You elected to participate on your own free will," Elijah reminded him.

"I had no choice! You put me on the spot. I couldn't possibly refuse Cami when she was standing right in front me."

"Trying to impress the girl, perhaps?" Rebekah teased.

"Says the girl who falls in love with anyone who looks at her. Such standards, little sister. You don't set the bar, you bury it in the ground."

Cami threw the hybrid a disproving frown. But Rebekah laughed. 'Don't worry, Cami, dear. Nik's just being cruel because he knows I'm right. Trust me, I've spent my whole life around posturing men. I don't shy easily and I'm hardly intimated by petty bullies."

"That bully is your brother though," Cami said.

"Half-brother," Rebekah amended. "And half the bully he thinks he is."

Cami tried not to pause the conversation too long as she hurried to take notes. "Good to know," she nodded, underlining something on her page, "and I think that's perhaps an interesting place to continue. Feel free to take this where you will, Rebekah, but how does it feel to be the younger sister for over a thousand years?"

"One word: Suffocating. Ten centuries and my brothers have yet to realize I can take care of myself."

Klaus started laughing, undaunted by his brother's pointed glare. "Perhaps I speak for myself," Elijah said, "but in my opinion you have certainly proved yourself competent, if not crafty, over the centuries, Rebekah."

"And yet you and Nik leave me out of _everything_ important."

Elijah shook his head. "Not true."

"How about the decision to leave Mystic Falls? I wanted to stay."

"Because of the charming Matthew Donovan?"

"Because it was our _home_ ," Rebekah said. "For 1000 years, Nik has moved us across the world, fleeing our father, but never allowing us any say in where we settled next. New Orleans was the only city we all came to love. But when we put down roots, Klaus tells us it's time to leave!"

"When Mikael burned the city to the ground, that's when it was time to leave."

"You have it wrong, brother," said Klaus. "Rebekah's not sore that we left New Orleans in 1919. She's sore I dagger her some years later… "

"Disallowing me from coming back."

"For Marcellus," Elijah sighed. He had finally got it. "But what of that matter which is most important, sister? Have you been left out of that?"

He had kept his question vague, meeting his sister's gaze through the monitor so the meaning of his words remained a secret between them. Rebekah looked off screen for a moment before crossing her arms and leaning in with a huff of air.

"It sucks," she said.

Cami halted her pen, looking up suddenly. "I'm sorry, was that in response to Elijah's question?"

"No, to yours. You wanted to know how it felt to be the youngest sibling? It sucks."

"Spare us," Klaus grumbled. "You covet the position. You love the attention."

"I'm not some naive little girl anymore, Nik."

"Oh, but you are…always and forever!"

" _Niklaus, please!"_

Cami noted how Elijah tried to keep the peace by adding some perspective. "And for what it's worth, being the eldest carries its own unique burdens."

"Finn is the eldest," Klaus corrected him.

"Finn is hardly our sibling," Rebekah added with a scoff.

"Why do you say that?" Cami wondered. "Is that because Finn wasn't around very much, being daggered and all?"

"Finn hates who we are," Klaus answered. "Even before he was a witch, Finn took after our mother in her loathing of vampires…the very creatures, mind you, she had turned us into herself."

"Finn fled," Elijah added, "immediately after our mother's death. So did Kol. For those first few decades it was only the three of us – Rebekah, and Niklaus and I. We took an oath that would we not abandon each other, that we would remain together –"

"Always and forever." Cami underlined the phrase in her notes. "I get it now. Through everything…all those centuries…that oath was a bond."

"Which someone," Rebekah frowned, "takes far too literally."

"And here we go again," Klaus exhaled. "It all comes back to me."


	11. Day Three, Part 2

"Don't be fooled by the act," warned Rebekah. "You're smarter than that."

Cami inched the computer closer to her. "Act?"

"This 'my siblings are being mean to me' act Klaus is so adept at. He wants your sympathy. But the truth is, Nik's terrified we'll leave him for good."

"I see," Cami nodded, turning to Klaus. "I guess that's something we'll have to discuss in our next one-on-one session."

"There's nothing to discuss," Klaus said, pointing at Rebekah and Elijah. "You want to know my burden as the middle one? Ten centuries of protecting these fools from their own idiocy!"

"Well-intentioned, but I have to question your methods," Cami said.

"You mean the daggering?" Huff. "Don't look at me like that. It's clean, it's convenient, and it's for their own good."

"And not a little bit extreme, you don't think? What crime could possibly deserve such punishment, Klaus?"

He listed them off his fingers. "Elijah gets in the middle of something he shouldn't. My sister gets under someone she shouldn't…"

Rebekah looked furious. "As if you're so bloody blameless."

"What I do, I do with purpose, sister. It's logic, not lunacy, or God forbid, love."

Cami shifted her eyes away from Klaus, making a big scene of shuffling through her pages. Elijah, noticing, sensed his brother's comments had hit a bit close. "Forgive my brother," he said. "Unfortunately it appears he has taken your request for candor to heart."

Klaus of course found this disdainfully hilarious. "Typical. I do the right thing and receive only ingratitude for my efforts."

"And what gives you the right," said Elijah, "to decide how and when we should be…'protected' as you so graciously put it?"

"Power is about possession, dear brother. I hold the daggers, I make the rules."

"Then perhaps I'll speak with the witches about crafting a dagger with your name on it," spoke Rebekah.

Klaus shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time you've plotted against me."

Elijah looked to Cami, begging her to end the session early. He did have a point; she needed to keep a tighter rein on the conversation as the sole professional (and adult?) in the room.

"Okay," she agreed. "Let me take a moment to remind everyone that this is a safe, non-threatening environment. I can't allow you to antagonize each other. In fact, let's ban the word 'dagger' altogether."

"Wise," Elijah nodded, "though I presume my brother will simply choose another weapon from his never-ending arsenal of oppression."

Rebekah had to laugh at that. "Oh, you're no better, Elijah. You might not be able to stick a dagger in my chest but your self-righteous shaming is no less subtle."

"Rebekah said 'dagger,'" tattled Klaus.

Cami ignored him. She wanted Rebekah to keep talking. "It sounds like you haven't always been a fan of your brother's opinions," she said.

Rebekah laughed again. "Opinions? Elijah doesn't have opinions, Cami, not when he's always right. When it comes to the noble Elijah, it's never a suggestion, never just advice – it's an order."

Cami turned to Elijah, who clearly thought his sister was being dramatic. "Rebekah _overemphasizing_ my dedication to her happiness," he said. "I only ever wish to guide my sister's behavior toward those endeavors which would benefit this family."

"That's code for 'overbearing big brother,'" piped Rebekah. "Put that in your notes, Camille."

Cami sighed. It was impossible, trying to keep the conversation fluent and civil at the same time. "Brothers are often protective of their sisters, Rebekah, especially younger ones," she said, with empathy. "I would not be surprised if Elijah believes he's trying to protect you from some greater evil."

"Camille is right," Elijah nodded. "I don't wish to see you get hurt, Rebekah."

"I'm an Original. There's not much anymore can do to harm me. So no need to –"

Rebekah grew so still for a second Cami thought the screen had frozen. "Are you still there?" she asked.

"Um…yes," she spoke up, suddenly on her feet. She kept looking off screen as if something urgent was distracting her. "Look, I have to go, Cami."

"Already? But I still have more questions and I hoped—"

"Exactly," said Rebekah.

"Is everything alright?" Elijah had leaned in. And Klaus loomed over the computer as well, considering the same, that perhaps something was wrong with his daughter. Hope had simply woken from a nap, but Rebekah found the brother's concern endearing.

"There's nothing to worry about here," she told them. "Continue helping Cami with her homework and don't worry a thing. About anyone. Later, Elijah - I'll call you."

The screen minimized and then went dark.

"Do you see that?" Klaus grumbled. "Not even a goodbye. I only exist to be yelled at."

Elijah sighed, rubbing his temple as he sat back in his seat. "Perhaps we should break for today, Camille. I fear the more of us you gather together, the less progress we are able to make."

"That seems to be the case," she agreed. "How about this? If you can get your mother in this evening then the two of you can have the rest of the day off."

"Fantastic!" said Klaus. He slapped his brother on the back. "Elijah can get right on that. Now if you excuse me I have some dastardly plans to get back to."

"Wait…"

Cami rose, closing her notepad and sticking her pen behind her ear. "I have one more request: I need to meet with your father too. There's no way I'll be able to pull this project together without speaking to him."

Klaus went a bit peaky. "Let Elijah be in charge of Mikael too."

Cami smiled gratefully. She knew she was asking a lot but every session so far seemed to circle around the Mikaelson parents. And even Mikael and Esther deserved to have their side of the story told.


	12. End of Day Three

Kol looked like he'd wandered into his session on accident. And he had.

"Well, hello," he whistled, strolling into the parlor. "You must be Camille."

From her chair, Cami clicked her pen. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"That's right. We've never been formally introduced." He extended a hand with a wink. "I'm Kol."

"The other brother?"

"As Klaus and Elijah like to call me, yeah."

He plopped down on the couch, pitching one leg over the arm. Cami scratched her head. "Did Elijah reach out about my project?"

"He might have mentioned it. Color me curious."

Cami nodded. Oh, desperation! She'd take what she got. "Well, I'm happy to chat, but I'm supposed to be having my follow-up now with Elijah."

"That bore? Toss him. Have fun with me instead. I'm far more entertaining, Camille. And anyway, Elijah's on a goose chase after our mother. You'll be lucky to see him before tomorrow."

"And who sent him on this goose chase?"

Kol shrugged. "It's his own bloody fault for caring so much."

"And do you enjoy wasting your brother's time?" Cami asked, not entirely kindly.

"I enjoy a lot of things," said Kol. "Torturing Elijah is merely one of them."

With a heavy sigh, Cami flipped open her notes. "Why don't we start there. Can I ask you a question?"

"Just one?"

"Color me curious," she said. "How do you fit into the Mikaelson hierarchy?"

"Hierarchy?" Kol scoffed. "Nah, you've got it wrong, Cami. There's no heirarchy. There's Klaus at the top and the rest under his feet."

"Figuratively, you mean. I hope."

Kol tucked his arm under his head and stared up at the ceiling. "1517. Spain. Klaus got word that I was shooting off my mouth about him, about how he was dead set on some silly ritual or other, about how he needed some moonstone or something to complete it. Never seen him so mad. He damn well slaughtered everyone in the pub, and I ended up with his foot on my neck. Thought he was gonna stomp my head clean off. But I got the dagger instead."

"Daggers have been banned from these sessions," he was told.

"It's cute that you think that, Camille," he said.

Cami wasn't sure how to respond. She wasn't even sure how to approach Kol Mikaelson. His devilish charm and youthful smile were clearly a façade for an old and wounded soul. Indeed, all the Mikaelsons had been abused, some by their father, some by each other.

"Klaus aside, do you care much for any of your other siblings?"

"They don't care much for me," she was told. "Do you see any 'em inviting me into their elite little circle?"

She checked her notes. "You mean Always and Forever?"

"Pretentious pricks… leaving me out…"

"Sounds like you suffer from Baby Brother syndrome. I get it. Always being left out...must be frustrating..."

"After a thousand years, I've gotten used to it."

"Have you?"

Kol blew a raspberry, ignoring the question. He extended his other leg, settling fully on the couch, sticking a second arm beneath his head for support. From somewhere – thin air? – Cami watched him produce an apple and bit into it with a crunch.

"Well, you're certainly making yourself at home," she mentioned.

"This is my home, darling. Or it was before the king moved into his castle. I'm just a beggar at the door now."

He spat out an apple seed, taking another bite. "The sod's not around, is he?"

"You're talking about Klaus? No, he's not. I'm pretty sure he's off plotting to murder your mother."

"Again," Kol noted. Cami wrote that down. She really did need to talk to Esther.

"Are you close to your mother?" she asked Kol next.

"Not as close as Finn. He lives up her arse."

Cami blinked. "Right." She'd heard a lot about this Finn. "I sense I will need to talk to him too."

"Finn's an insufferable sycophant. Don't waste your time, Cami. There's not much there to probe if you know what I mean."

Cami scribbled down "Find Finn" in her notes and double underlined the reminder. But this was Kol's hour - sort of. Again, he had sort of wandered into his session on accident.

"Elijah told me you used to be a witch before your mother turned you into a vampire," she said. "Is that right?"

Kol took a bite of apple. "I'm a witch now," he said.

"And how does that you make feel?"

"Awesome." Another bite. "Anything I want, it's mine. And the ladies love a magic man."

Cami tapped her pen twice. "It sounds then like you didn't enjoy your time as a vampire. I'm curious to know why. Superspeed. Superstrength. Not to mention immortality. Couldn't you have had anything you wanted?"

"Not everything," Kol said. "Friends were hard to come by when your father kept trying to murder you."

Father? _Mikael._ Cami sensed a new thesis chapter forming. "Let's focus instead on the good things in your life." With a paused, she smirked. "How's Davina Claire?"

Kol sat up. "Oh, you are crafty, Camille. And a gossip."

"Davina's my friends, Kol. Friends talk. She seems happy though."

"She does? I mean, of course, she does! I'm a consummate gentleman!"

"You going to ask her out proper then?"

Cami had to wait for an answer. "Nah," Kol said, slumping down again. "She's too good for me. I've switched bodies, but I'm still a Mikaelson."

"Sounds like family's a touchy subject for you. Care to elaborate?"

"Not really," Kol said. He tossed his apple core into a nearby potted plant. Likely to annoy Elijah. "I'm only here to watch the others suffer."

Cami sat back, lifting her pen. "That's not exactly how group therapy works," she said. "And I can't make much more headway with these sessions until I've spoken with Esther."

Kol shivered at the thought. "You're not gonna find her. And don't ask; I don't where she'd holed up, hiding. That's how much she trusts her children."

"Klaus and Elijah give me the impression she has a reason to be wary."

"But not from Rebekah. She adored mother. Was devasted the first time Nik killed her. And the second, if we're being honest, even though the crazy bat tried to wipe us from the face of the earth."

Cami nodded. "So given what I've heard today, I take it Rebekah's your favorite sibling?"

"Well, she's not an insufferable snot. Most of the time. She used to be quite fun actually, back in the day. 1914. This one Christmas, right here in the Compound. The trouble we got into got me daggered for a hundred years."

Cami's hand flew across her notepad. "Interesting….interesting….and how did that make you feel?"

But Kol saw through her one-liners. "Eh, come on, Cami. You and I both know you're too clever for these same-old questions. Where's your creativity? Your heart? All that mushy stuff Klaus says he fancies about you?"

The tables had suddenly turned. "Klaus…Klaus said that? About me?"

Kol waggled his brows. "Klaus tells everyone in the Quarter about you...the Brave Bartender."

She pulled at her cardigan, annoyed. "Well, he hasn't said anything to me."

"And how does that make you feel, love?"

Cami should have seen that coming. "Nice try, but that's my line," she said. "Now, back to your relationship with Rebekah..."

But they were suddenly interrupted. Just as Cami flipped to a fresh page, Marcel walked in from stage right. She stood up to greet him, but Marcel shot straight for Kol.

"You, Kaleb? You the one who's been stalking Davina Claire?"

Kol looked wounded. "Stalking? Do you hear this, Cami?"

"Stay. Away. From. Her," Marcel growled. "My guys saw you hanging with some shady characters over in Lafayette. Werewolves. From out of town. Now, I don't know what's going on, but I know witches and wolves don't mix up unless trouble's about to go down. So take your trouble, and walk right out of my city."

Kol threw up his hands, beaming with innocence. "You see what I put up with? And they say witches haven't been persecuted since Salem. No bother, though. I've spoken my peace."

He winked again to Cami as Marcel watched him retreat. Marcel was not exactly happy about what he'd walked into. "You playing mind games with all the Mikaelsons now?"

"You know I'm a psychologist," Cami said, disapprovingly. "It's sort of what I do."

"Not with this lot, you don't," he said. "Because the thing is with the Mikaelsons, when you think you're playing them, they're really playing you. And when you lose, you end up dead. So you better have a good reason for your little one-on-on with an undercover Original."

Cami stood her ground. "How's this for a reason? My advisor dropped dead and I have four days to propose a new project or I forfeit my entire degree."

Marcel shifted, rubbing his head. "A better reason then."


	13. Day Four

Cami passed the morning in Rousseau's bar. It was before noon, so empty, the perfect place to review her notes and clear her mind before meeting up with Elijah later that day. She was hoping for good news concerning Esther's, or even Mikael's location, but she worried she had put Elijah in a tough spot asking him to wrangle in his family.

Like headings cats, she thought. Sly, slippery, murderous cats.

She was also aware that Kol had given Elijah misinformation, sending him in what was a likely fruitless pursuit of their parents. Now Elijah was radio silent since the day before, and to be honest, Cami was starting to worry.

Should she call him?

She decided instead to call Klaus. If Elijah was behind enemy lines, she didn't want to give him away. But then again, was she ready to face Klaus? It was one thing talking to the hybrid when he was on the couch and she was in control, but over the phone...

What had Kol said? Did Klaus Mikaelson really refer to her as the Brave Bartender? Did he…did he actually like her? And for more than her stenographic skills? Because that would totally screw her over if he did! Psychologists couldn't get involved with their patients, and that's what Klaus was, if just for the week.

So, no calling Klaus. It was best, she decided, to limit their out-of-session interactions.

But tucking her phone away, that's when Cami noticed the girl. A kid in a bar, all alone at a high table. Twelve, thirteen…. No, fifteen, sixteen years old. Bobbed hair and a constrained smile. She was smiling rather intensely.

"I've been watching you," she said. Nope, not creepy at all.

"Oh, yeah?" questioned Cami. She began to pack her notes. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

"Shouldn't you?" said the girl.

Cami spun. "Actually, I am. I'm studying to be a licensed psychologist. That's a person who…"

"I know what a psychologist is, Camille O'Connell."

She damn near fell off her stool. "How do you know who I am?" she gawked.

"The Brave Bartender," the girl said, almost fondly. Cami clutched her bag close

"No need to be nervous," she added. "I'm the one you've been looking for."

"I've been looking from a truant teenager?"

The girl smiled. "Call me Esther."

"Esther...as in the Original Witch?" There was no one else in the bar to witness this, but Cami was sure she wasn't hallucinating, and she hadn't even ordered a drink. "The fourth harvest girl," she realized. "You've stolen Cassie's body."

"For now," said the Mikaelson matriarch, her voice soft and mousy. But it was all a trick; the voice, the face, the little girl getup — a way to win her trust.

Cassie – Esther – slid off her stool. "Finn tells me you've found a hopeless cause worth publishing."

That smugness was hereditary. Cami had sensed it a million times in Klaus. "You could say that. I'm hoping to do my psychology thesis on your children."

Esther laughed. "No, you're hoping to do your project on me. I am the tree from which those apples fell, rotten as they are. No one knows my children like I do, their mother. I admire your commitment, Camille, but you are powerless to save them."

Cami found herself instantly defensive. "I'm just hoping to study them," she said. "They can save themselves."

"If only that were true, but I am here to warn you, Camille, that if you knock on doors, they will open. And some of my children have monsters behind theirs."

"I can handle Klaus," Cami said.

"It's not Niklaus you should fear."

Esther – Cassie – then turned her slim frame toward the door. "I know you have my Elijah searching for me. Poor lost soul. Only Finn knows where I am."

"Well, I know where you are," sassed Cami. "You're right in front of me."

"Wrong yet again," said Esther, then her image flickered twice.

A hologram?

"Astral projection," the witch explained. Then the lights overhead exploded, raining sparks down from the ceiling. Cami tripped backward, falling onto a table, then the floor, the stars dancing in front of her eyes masking Esther's exit.

A new presence now hovered over her, helping her to her feet. "The whiskey get you down?" It was Hayley. Her hair smelled like leather and bayou.

Cami dusted herself off. "Esther, actually," she confessed.

"Elijah's psycho mother? What the hell did she want?"

"I think…I think she wanted to warn me. Something about doors and the monsters behind them."

Hayley looked her dead on. "How hard exactly did you hit your head?"

"Ha, ha," Cami laughed. She then grimaced, cracking her back. "When I signed up to be a psychologist, I didn't realize it would be this physically demanding. By the way, have you heard about my —"

"Insane idea to interview the entire Mikaelson family? Yeah, the whole Quarter's been talking about it. How's it going?"

"Well, I was alive when you found me... so I'd say good!"

Hayley laughed, leading them to the bar. "From what I hear, you have the siblings talking. And you even got the elusive Kol Mikaelson to sit still for an hour."

So much for closed sessions. "OK, Hayley - who's your spy on the inside? Marcel?"

She seemed to hesitate. "Klaus filled me in."

"Not Elijah?"

Cami smiled shamelessly, slowly taking our her notes again. But Hayley had caught on immediately. She pounded twice on the bar, signaling for a drink. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right."


	14. Day Four, Part Two

**AN: Starting a new job and recovering from the finale so these might come out a bit slower...but thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing!**

Hayley pushed her hair from her eyes, pausing to sip from her beer. "Sorry, Cami, but I think I trust more in psychics than psychology."

"Do you believe that talking through your problems helps? Then I don't see why you'd be adverse to helping me out."

It was now the afternoon rush at Rousseau's but Cami had claimed a quiet table in the back to spread out her notes. Hayley had agreed to stick around and catch up but was a bit reluctant to contribute anything more to the project. "If you're focusing on the Mikaelsons," she said, "I don't see how I can help."

"You're close to them," said Cami. "To Klaus, obviously, but to Elijah too. I could really use that insight."

Hayley raised her bottle again, though it never met her lips. "Elijah and I aren't as close as you think," she said. "Not anymore."

"Want to talk about it?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Yes, and no," laughed Cami, slamming her notebook shut. "I promise, no...shrink stuff. Just a good, honest talk - girl-to-girl."

That made Hayley ease up. "I have been hurting a bit for female friends. In the bayou, it's all tough guys and testosterone. And Rebekah...she's off in fairytale land. Happily, of course. But..."

"The Mikaelsons could use another sister," Cami joked.

They both laughed. "I don't think this town can tolerate anymore Mikaelsons," Hayley said. "I'm kinda with Klaus on this: his parents need to go."

Cami couldn't help. Her notebook crept open again.

"So much for girl talk," Hayley noted dryly. "It's fine. Keep it open. I know how much this project means to you."

"A compromise? I'll only use my notes as a reference, but you and I will be off the record. Nothing you say will go in the book, and I won't bring it up to Klaus - or Elijah."

Hayley sat down her beer. "Sounds fair," she said. "But how does that actually help you?"

"It'll give me...perspective," Cami figured. "And hopefully you as well."

Hayley eyed her directly. "I'm in, but two rules. One: we talk about the present, not the past. Do you get me?"

Cami nodded. She knew Hayley still struggled with the loss of her child and that she herself wasn't qualified to address such a tragedy. It wouldn't be fair to Hayley to even suggest she understood what she had gone through.

"Deal," she said. "And rule two?"

She watched as Hayley knocked back the rest of her drink. "You don't get to sit on the sidelines here. For every question you ask me, I ask one in return. Don't think I haven't noticed what's going on between you and Klaus. When he's around you, he's..."

"Less of a psychopath?'

"Almost a human being," Hayley said. But she threw in a smile and ordered them both another round. "It's strange, but he's...he's actually been really been there for me since...since..."

She couldn't quite finish the sentence. "Anyway, I think he understands how I feel," she said.

Cami raised her eyes slowly. "You mean he understands loss? And loneliness?"

"And that he's not the world's only hybrid anymore."

Hayley was breaking her own rules, and Cami appreciated it. Unlike Klaus, this wolf was willing to be vulnerable, but Cami was certain she'd get Klaus there as well.

She reset the mood. "Right. I'm not playing fair. It's your turn to pry into my private life."

"No need," Hayley said. "I'm sorry, Cami, but you're an open book."

"Oh, God - that bad?" They both laughed. "Do you think Marcel knows?"

"How you feel about Klaus?"

"I was going to say how Klaus feels about me," Cami said. "But I think I got my answer."

"My two cents? You might be with Marcel now, but what you started with Klaus has potential. You just...you just can't give up on him."

"You sound like Elijah there."

Hayley rolled her eyes as the waiter came around with their beers. "I know where this is going, so I'll give you what you want, Cami. Rebekah's not a storytale princess, Klaus isn't the Big Bad Wolf and Elijah isn't some savior on a white horse. They're just thousand-year-old kids with royally screwed up parents. But they're loyal and fearless, and they would do anything for each other. That doesn't excuse the bad things they've done, but there's the perspective you wanted. The Mikaelsons make mistakes and regret them like anyone else. They've just had to live with that regret for a lot longer than any of us."

It was a while before either said anything. "I think you're onto something," Cami smiled. "I'd just add one thing. They're not just thousand-year-old kids with royally screwed up parents, they're also still scared of those parents. Esther, and Mikael - the way Klaus freezes when I mention them; even Elijah goes quiet. There's no way I can begin to uncover the damage Esther and Mikael did to their children in a week. I'd need -"

"A thousand years?"

"Times twenty."

They finished their beers as Cami closed her notebook. "I should run. I'm supposed to meet Elijah now for a follow-up. A reschedule from yesterday."

Hayley looked up. "Have you heard from him since then?"

"Why? Want me to schedule a joint session for you two?"

Her suggestion was ignored as Hayley checked her phone. "Klaus is complaining that Elijah's not answering his calls."

"Should we be worried?" asked Cami.

"With Esther on the loose," Hayley answered. "Always."


	15. End of Day Four

Elijah was missing, which meant Klaus was feeling untethered. His concern for his brother teetered on panic, and he circled the parlour, passing back and forth between Cami, who sat in her usual chair with her usual mien. "On the bright side," she had to say, "this is certainly the most emotion I've seen from you all week."

Klaus did not take the compliment. "This is your bloody fault, Camille."

"And we call that 'projection' in the psych field," she said.

"I'm not projecting anything, love! My anger with you is well founded. You thought up this ridiculous project and you came to my brother, begging for help."

Cami had been ready to defend herself, but there was a long pause from Klaus. He threw himself on the sofa, raking his feral hair with both hands. "I sent Elijah after Esther. Ergo, this is my fault."

She tilted her head sympathetically. "Nothing's for sure yet," she said. "And just because Elijah hasn't checked in doesn't mean something's wrong."

"Don't be daft, Camille. You've been around this family long enough to know that's exactly what it means."

"Or here's a thought. Elijah is working on something called 'distance.' As children grow older, Klaus, they develop a healthy distance from their siblings. It doesn't mean they don't love each other. It just means..."

"They've been kidnapped by a sect of militant wolves under the spell of my mother."

Klaus looked up from his phone. "Hayley just confirmed it," he added.

Cami blinked. "Then this is my fault. I took advantage of Elijah's willingness to help. I didn't acknowledge the danger."

"Step number one is admitting the problem..."

She wasn't sure if he were joking. "I have something to confess to you, Klaus."

"Should we switch places then?" he said, pointing to the couch with a smirk.

"I'm serious, Klaus. When your mother showed up at Rousseau's today..."

" - she _what_?"

"...she made some veiled allusion to Elijah being in trouble."

 _"SHE WHAT?!"_

"And I should have told you right away."

"You think!" snapped Klaus. He narrowed his blue eyes. "What happened to open and honest, Camille? Does that apply to the real world, or does communication only work when one of us is sitting on a couch?"

Cami took a deep breath. "Clearly, you're upset."

"And do you need a degree to tell you that? Then abandon this misguided project and do something that matters, Cami. Help me find Elijah."

He was right. She stood shamefaced from her chair. "I'm on your side," she said. "Just tell me how I can help."

Klaus tapped his chin, thinking. "Tell me everything Kol said in his session."

She sighed. "You know I can't. Patient-client privilege."

Klaus just stared.

"It would invalidate my project," she explained further.

More. Intense. Staring.

"And disqualify my credentials... I would never be allowed to practice!"

Klaus finally blinked. "All problems that can be solved with compulsion," he said. "But you know who I can't compel? My bloody mother to give Elijah back!"

He was right. Again. "Fine," sighed Camille. "But only to help find Elijah. Kol told me Esther doesn't trust him. He hasn't been told when she's hiding and I doubt he knows where she took Elijah. He's innocent in this, Klaus. But..."

 _"But?"_

"But Kol _did_ also say he sent Elijah on a goose chase when he came around asking for your mother's location."

"Meaning Kol knowingly sent his own brother into a trap."

"We don't know that, Klaus."

He slowly smiled. "But there's a simple way to find out."

* * *

Kol had spent the day minding the herbs in the witches' Lycee at his mother's behest, but he knew his brother had popped round when a pair of sheers came flying at his face. They buried themselves in the board behind his head with comical accuracy but Klaus wasn't laughing. "Where's Elijah?" he demanded with a roar. "What have you done with our brother?!"

Another set of sheers came headed his way, but Kol threw up his hands, raising a magical barrier for protection. "Hey, now there - mind the new body! I'm not immortal anymore!"

"And we're not here to bloody play around, Kol. I don't care what face you're wearing now - Elijah is still your brother. And you sold him out!"

"He means, Elijah is missing and we'd appreciate any help you can give," Cami said.

Klaus scoffed. "What I mean is if you don't start talking soon, I'll burn this bloody bungalow to the ground!"

"It's a greenhouse," Kol pointed out. He wasn't feeling particularly motivated to give Klaus what he wanted. But that's where Cami came in.

"How about this?" she offered, turning over her wrist. "I'll set my watch for 30 seconds and you get 30 seconds, Kol, to say whatever you want to your brother - anything you ever wanted to say - knowing he can't hurt you because of the magical barrier. And then, when your times up, you tell us what you know about Elijah."

Kol chewed on the thought for a moment. "Just 30 seconds? Ah, okay - okay! I'll bite. Nik could use a taste of his own medicine, after all."

"Meaning what?" sneered Klaus.

"I think you know what, big brother. For a thousand years, I've been the one on the outside looking in. 'Always and forever' never included me. But now I'm standing on this side of the barrier with all the answers and you're the one begging to be let in!"

Klaus scoffed, and stepping forward, he toed the magical line dividing him from Kol. "Have you ever stopped to think, dear brother, that perhaps the reason Elijah and I have excluded you so often is that you can't be trusted?"

"I'm not Finn, Nik -"

"Oh? And how long precisely did it take you to sell out Elijah after mother patted you on the head?"

Kol grew quiet. "It wasn't like that," he explained. "She brought me back, you know. From the Other Side. Where it's darkness and cold and nothing else. But mother saved me. She brought me back, put me in this body - made me a witch again. Made me someone she doesn't hate...who doesn't hate themselves. So if Esther needs a favor, I'm inclined to oblige. I owe her."

"You owe that woman nothing," Klaus said. "Not even the mercy of a swift death. And if I find any harm has come to Elijah because of you, then don't expect such mercy for yourself."

Cami came forward. "Can I recommend a different approach? You know, besides promises of murder and mayhem? Kol, what is something you want from Klaus in exchange for your help?"

"Are we negotiating?" Klaus grumbled.

"It's called compromise," she said. She looked at Kol expectantly.

"The Compound," he said. "I want to move back in."

"Absolutely not!"

"It's my home too, Nik! That M plastered everywhere stands for Mikaelson and I'm a Mikaelson."

Klaus would have punched through the barrier if he could. "Fine," he said. "But you get the small room."

"And Marcellus?"

"What about him?"

"Will you explain to him that I'm not the enemy?"

Klaus shrugged, then nodded. "Now tell me where Elijah is," he said.

But lowering the magical barrier. Kol simply turned back to his herbs. "You won't find our brother easily," he warned. "Elijah's behind his Red Door."


	16. Day Five

Cami ordered a double espresso and then watched her advisor do the same. It was day five on her quest to save her academic career and he wanted to know how she was doing. So early in the morning, however, and things weren't quite so clear. So far she had notebooks worth of observations, and some choice talking points, but overall more questions than answers.

Also, just in terms of general ethics and endangering the lives of her patients, she might have really screwed up.

She was unusually anxious this morning. Now and then she would glance at her phone. With some reluctant but well-earned help from Kol, Klaus had been successful in retrieving his brother from his mother. But as Klaus had put it, something was off with Elijah, and Cami feared it was well above her pay-grade to figure out what and to fix it.

Thus the meeting with her advisor. He received their coffees from the waitress and promised to pay for hers.

"That's really not necessary," she said, but the way she fumbled through her purse spoke otherwise. "I'm an idiot. I must've left my wallet at Rousseau's yesterday."

Vincent Griffith could look quite intimidating when he wanted to. "I thought we were on a deadline, Camille. I didn't realize you had time for a drink."

"If only. I was at the bar for a session. The woman I was interviewing likes to keep it casual. Her name is Hayley Marshall, a friend of the family."

"I know,' he said. But with a pause, he backtracked. "Not this Hayley person, I mean, but how careful and dedicated you are to your praxis, Camille. You'll make a great therapist one day."

"Not if I can't manage a breakthrough with this family I'm studying. Every time I think they're moving in a better direction, things get said and feelings get hurt, then it's back to square one, right where they started. Everyone sad. Everyone angry. Everyone alone."

"Tale as old as time," her advisor said. Then he grew quiet and sipped from his tiny, white cup. "Why don't you give me the rundown on the family. Maybe I can spot something you've missed. Point you in the right direction."

Cami nodded, her espresso ignored. She shuffled through her notes. "Well, to start, there are five siblings. Four tough brothers and a tougher baby sister. I've given them all code names in my files: Suits, Daggers, Queen of Hearts, and Kol."

"Kol?"

"Not like the stuff in your Christmas stocking. And Kol's not a codename. It's his actual name. I couldn't think up a pseudonym."

Her advisor seemed to smile. "So that's Elijah, Niklaus, Rebekah...and Kol."

Cami stared down at her notes. "Did you read that off my page?"

"And what about Finn?" her advisor asked, ignoring her question.

"Oh, you mean coffin guy?"

Vincent Griffith frowned. "Very professional, Camille. Usually, we give our patients numbers instead of childish nicknames."

"Well, no one but me is going to see these notes," she reasoned. "And the codenames help me keep it all straight. You cannot imagine how confusing it gets in these sessions. It's hard to keep track of who's betraying who at any given moment! And my notes are all out of order… see, this page should be here because there were actually six siblings. Not five. Another one was mentioned."

"A girl," Vincent said. "An older sister."

Cami frowned, ruffling through her stacks. "That doesn't sound right. Was that in my notes?"

Her advisor went quiet for a moment. "I must be mixing up your family with another I'm overseeing. There are so many families in this town, all crying out for help."

"I agree - the Mikaelsons could use a good cry. It's like pulling teeth trying to get them to open up. They talk… they talk a lot… but they just end up talking circles around the real problem - problems rather. They do have an awful lot of problems."

Vincent Griffith set down his cup. "You're gonna need to focus on just one of those problems by the end of the week," he reminded her. "For your proposal, remember?"

"I know, I know," she nodded. "If there was just some way to organize all these notes, I'm sure I could find a common thread. A single, overarching question. A..."

"Thesis?"

"And that's what I need for the proposal, right?" She slumped back into her seat. "How this? Bad parenting leads to bad children."

Her advisor laughed. "Reductive, but let's roll with it. How are the parents bad?"

More shuffling of notes. "Well, the father was abusive and the mother was manipulative. And she liked to kidnap and torture her kids. At least from what I've heard."

Vincent Griffith raised a brow. "...From what you've heard?"

"Well...I haven't had the chance to interview the mother yet...or the father."

"Camille!"

"I know. I know. But they're hard to nail down!"

Cami sighed. She hated to think her advisor thought she was incompetent. But she couldn't quite admit that the Mikaelson parents had recently just risen from the grave, or that they were too busy tormenting their children to sit still on a couch for an hour.

"Don't worry," she said. "I have people looking for the mother."

Her advisor laughed. "People, Camille?"

"Her children, in fact."

"Her bad children, you mean."

"That's not what I said..."

"No, that's exactly what you said, Camille. You said the bad parents created the bad children, and now you got the bad children tracking down the bad parents, which is a bad idea because you've gone and contaminated your study!"

Cami cringed. "...and just how bad is that exactly? Do I have to scrap my entire project?"

"Depends," said her advisor. "Have you been fair and ethical in all other components? Have you done all you can do to protect the mental and physical wellbeing of your subjects? Have you remained objective, from beginning to end, on your mission to study the Mikaelsons?"

"..."

"Camille?"

"Uh..."

"Camille!"

"No, I have," she said. "I have!"

She had not. But her advisor seemed to buy it. He sat back, satisfied. "Then you good, Camille. Relax and enjoy your morning."

"But what if -"

 _"Camille!"_

"It's just a hypothetical! But what if...what if one of my subjects, let's call him...Suits. What if Suits had a bit of a rough night because I suggested he reconnect with his mother? Prematurely. Before I had talked to the mother and before he was ready to face the trauma of his past. In your professional opinion, just how badly did I permanently damage his psyche?"

Vincent Griffith folded his hands, elbows on the table, and leaned in. "You can't break what's already broken, Camille. From what you've been telling me about these siblings, they were lost long before you found them. No point blaming yourself if their demons break free - they weren't never locked up in the first place."

If Cami found this response a bit pointed, she didn't let on. She was just relieved her advisor wasn't about to report her to the Ethics Board. "But have I really contaminated my study?"

"No," said Griffith. "I was just making the point earlier that your thesis is reductive. You also don't seem to agree with your premise. The way you talk about them, I don't get the sense that you believe the Mikaelsons are bad people."

He was right. Bad vampires, maybe. But bad people?

"I don't," she said. "They may be powerful, they may be influential, they may be rich as hell, but under all that the Mikaelsons are just people."

"Ordinary people," her advisor said. " Camille O'Connell, you just found the title of your project."

* * *

An hour later and Cami was alone at the table, having finally organized her notes. In victory, she reached for her coffee, now stone cold, but satisfying nonetheless.

 _Ordinary People: The psychology of an atypical, typical family_

She wrote the title of her project on the first page of her notebook then reached for her phone. No missed calls from Klaus. No word on Elijah. But she did have one new text message. It came from an unknown number, though the message was signed, letting her know that Finn Mikaelson was finally ready to talk.


	17. Day Five, Part Two

Cami rose from the cafe table, ready to head back to the Compound and deal with the ethics of dealing with Elijah. It needed to happen before she followed up with Finn and opened a new chapter in the Mikaelson papers.

Klaus had been texting in increasingly urgent spurts all morning, but her advisor was old school and she had turned off her phone for their meeting. She had now just turned it back on when a tall shadow crossed her path, bumping into her; a woman. A rainbow of change scattered to the ground, escaping the strange woman's hands and rolling loose pennies across the pavement and into Decatur Street.

The woman swooped to collect her coins, drawing her long fingers together. She wore an odd dress, old-fashioned like a doll might wear, dirty around the hems and lace edges and dusty and musty with time. Her hair was a long tangle of blonde, and her blue eyes - though strangely familiar - flittered around uncertain of themselves.

Homeless, Cami realized. Poor girl! She was likely a touch disturbed as well.

That natural urge to help rose inside Camille. She shuffled toward the woman, unafraid, eager to put her training to use. Yes, there were some people who needed the sort of help she couldn't provide, but a little kindness went a long way and there was something about the woman - something she couldn't quite put her finger on - that reminded her uncannily of Klaus.

"I don't have much," she said, digging to the bottom of her purse. "But I hope this helps."

What a day to forget her wallet! She managed to scoop out a few quarters and handed them to the woman with a smile. The woman, in return, grabbed her hand, alarmingly. "I felt his presence and I traced it here, but now I sense so much more," the woman said.

Cami had no clue what the woman was going on about. "What's your name?"

"Sleeping Beauty."

"No, your name? What can I call you?"

"..Not Wednesday, Thursday, but Friday."

 _Oh...Kay._

Cami shook her head, then dug back into her bag, finding Vincent Griffith's card. "My advisor's number's on there. I'm sorry I can't do more."

* * *

Cami was thrown by the eerie quiet of the Compound as she met Hayley at the gate. "I'm here for Elijah. I heard he's not doing well."

"That's one way to put it," Hayley said. She began to lead Cami through the Compound.

"He's still asleep?"

"If by 'asleep' you mean trapped in a maze of mental torment, then yeah, Elijah's sleeping fine. Klaus and I tried everything to wake him."

"And nothing?"

Hayley paused as they reached the kitchen. The despondency on her face said everything.

"Hey, none of that," Cami said. "No one could have seen something like this happening to Elijah."

"Except Klaus," she was answered. "Guess all that paranoia paid off."

Cami couldn't help it. She went into therapist mode. "Klaus' paranoia is not something to praise, Hayley. It's rooted in fear, and childhood trauma, and has led to a thousand years of delusion, irrationality, and violence. It's not exactly conducive to a tranquil family environment."

Hayley set a kettle on the burner and turned on the gas for the stove. "No, it's not," she agreed. "But it's kept his siblings safe."

"Safe is relative, Hayley. Do you feel safe around Klaus?"

"I trust him to protect what's important."

"But do you feel safe?"

Cami itched to record Hayley's silence in her notes but felt the timing was inappropriate. Hayley's head was clearly somewhere else today.

"Uh, Hayley - you're filling the room with gas. Remember, if the house explodes, unlike you I won't grow all my limbs back."

Hayley clicked the burner off. "Right. Sorry. I'm...distracted."

"You're worried about Elijah."

"I'm worried this family will never find peace. It's their history - this city. All this chaos and backstabbing and manipulation. It's no world to raise a child in."

Cami looked up. "Any child in particular?"

Hayley turned the kettle back on. "I need to get this boiling," she said, the topic thoroughly changed. "Klaus is out hunting for some herb or whatnot that needs to be boiled for Elijah. It's supposed to help fight whatever Esther did to him."

"And what did she do to him? Any idea?"

"Know someone named Tatia?"

Cami couldn't help it. She took out her notes. "Actually, I do. She was a girl from Elijah's village. He loved her."

"And then he killed her," Hayley said, not batting an eye.

"Oh."

Cami hadn't gotten that part of the story. "So Esther's tortured Elijah with memories of his past?"

"He's not the only one," Hayley said vaguely. Then she was quiet. For a long time, she simply watched the water boil, not offering up a word. But Cami had a hunch Hayley was in her head, debating. Wanting to speak out.

And she was right.

"Earlier, when I mentioned raising a child in this city..."

"Is this on the record?" Cami had to ask. She raised her pen expectantly.

Hayley just shrugged. "If it'll help you help them," she said. She meant the Mikaelsons.

"I appreciate it. But I want to be clear; you don't have to say anything you're not comfortable sharing, Hayley. My project's on Klaus and Elijah, not you. I didn't mean to bring up the child you lost. I know those memories are still painful."

Hayley looked up. "But what if she wasn't lost?"

Cami blinked, but before she could mutter a confused response, the kettle began to whistle just as Klaus stormed into the room. He had a feverish look about him and smelled like woods - and blood. He threw a handful of plant matter down on the counter, white flowers with red veins. "It's a Blood Orchid," he explained. "And don't ask me where I found it. Or what I did to get it."

"You look like hell," said Hayley. She was already pouring the water. "But whatever you had to do, Klaus, Elijah will understand."

Cami noted the pained expression on Klaus' face, but it was gone in a second. He had apparently noticed Cami. "And where were you all morning?"

"Out. With my adviser. We needed to talk about the status of my project."

Klaus dunked the orchids in the mug of hot water. "Don't tell me you're still on that pointless crusade."

"You mean the completion of my degree? It's only my life's work, Klaus."

Klaus sideyed Hayley. "Don't tell me you're on her side," he groused.

"We need her, Klaus. Elijah's a headcase thanks to your psycho mother and you're not exactly a ball of sunshine either. Esther's going to win this war if she can unhinge you this easily. She's out-magicked you both."

"Bloody magic," Klaus griped, swiping the mug for Elijah. "If only we had a witch in the family who wasn't in cahoots with my mother."

* * *

The woman had watched Camille O'Connell retreat from Jackson Square, her blue eyes ghosting to an oceanic grey. There was magic in the air today. With a few simple words, her illusion fell away, her rags transforming to a short, stylish dress; black and intimidating. A witch of the modern age.

The witch curled her fingers, chanting the magic words beneath her breath until Jackson Square faded in and out of view, the tracking spell completed. Wherever Cami went now, she would know; she didn't even need the contact card she'd been given. Her tracking spell would lead her to Finn.

To her lost brother.

To her family.

She thought of the darkness of those cold Norweigan winters; the loneliness of a childhood trapped in the woods. The terror of a life ruled by her wicked aunt. Like black clouds, these thoughts invaded her mind, but then like a rising sun a new thought scattered the sorrow. Soon - soon! - she'd be reunited with her siblings. And the joy of being with family, after so many centuries alone, made Freya Mikaelson smile.


	18. Day Five, Part Three

Evening crept over the wooded Lousiana countryside as the sound of distant church bells caught Cami's ear. She was meant to be holed up in some coffee shop, madly typing up her proposal, but here she was taking the long afternoon to visit an old friend. She had needed to escape the Compound, mainly Hayley's pacing, Elijah's whimpers, and Klaus in general. With Elijah still duly under Esther's spell, Klaus was leaning on her more and more. But how many times could one say "I'm sorry but I can't fix your brother" before the message sank in?

Too many. But at the moment, the Compound - and Klaus - were miles away. Cami cut the engine and stepped out of her car. Her feet hit the forest floor as she gazed up at the cabin; derelict and desolate. She had no clue why Davina had given her this address.

She began to circle the property, hearing her voice echo through the woods. "Hello? Anyone home?"

"Cami?"

It was Davina. They met on the porch and hugged tightly. "Oh, Cami, I've missed you. So much has happened."

"You're telling me." She squeezing the young witch's shoulder. The day had been hot, but Davina seemed particularly sweaty and worked up. She was dressed in workout gear, her hair pulled back with a band. "Why did you want to meet here?" Cami asked.

Davina grabbed her hand. "I have someone to show you."

"Uh...don't you mean _something?"_

Cami's curiosity threatened to swallow her whole as Davina tugged her toward the yard behind the house. But before she turned the corner, she paused warily, hearing a series of manly grunts and groans. The clear sound of combat.

Divina noticed her uneasiness. "Okay, now don't freak out," she said.

"Don't freak out? Davina, what have you done?"

"You know Klaus and Elijah have this dad, right? Well, you're about to meet him."

"Davina...Klaus told me he killed his father."

"Right," she said. "Which is why I revived him from the dead."

Cami blinked. Several times. "Davina, are you telling me you've been hiding _zombie-Mikael_ in your backyard?"

Davina rolled her eyes in response. Then she turned the corner of the house and Cami followed, gasping at what she saw. Mikael. The Destroyer. The Vampire who Hunts Vampires. She knew every name for him because Klaus never stopped cursing each and every one. Mikael looked every bit intimidating as Klaus' stories made him seem. He swung a battle staff in both hands, aiming it straight at her.

The Original growled: "You know me?"

Cami crossed both arms. "I recognize you," she admitted. "Klaus showed me images, from his past. If memory serves, you were a bit of a dick."

"Filthy lies from the mind of a filthy beast!"

"My point exactly," Cami said. She turned back to Davina, frowning. The witch sighed. "Okay, so he's a bit dramatic," she said.

"And what about dangerous, Davina? Mikael did horrible things to Klaus and his siblings. They were just children, Davina."

"And those _children_ , Cami, grew up to be selfish, bloodthirsty monsters...so maybe they deserved what they got."

"Wisdom from the mouth of babes," Mikael chuckled. Then he went on swinging his staff.

Cami grabbed Davina's shoulder for a sidebar. "In case I haven't made my point, Davina, this is totally insane. That's an uncontrollable Original in your backyard, not some attack dog you can use against Klaus."

"So, what? Gonna tell on me to Marcel?"

Cami was torn. She stood up straight, scratching her head. Was her thesis worth putting people's lives in danger?

Probably.

"Just to be clear, the only reason I'm not pulling rank and sending you straight home to Marcel is that I need Mikael. I need to interview him for my proposal."

"The one due in two days?"

"Glad everyone in the Quarter knows."

Davina laughed. "If Josh knows; everyone knows," she said, growing serious again. But, Cami, I don't see how Mikael can help you. When he's not training for battle against Klaus, he's calling him a lot of nice-so-nice names."

Cami figured. She wrestled her notebook from her bag. "And that magic bracelet you showed me? It makes him do whatever you want?"

" _I_ make him do whatever I want. I'll make him do your interview, for your thesis. But you'll owe me."

"Hmm. Something a little more than a coffee, I presume..."

Cami didn't particularly like how Davina didn't respond. Or how she was acting. Or who her new "friend" was. But Davina's childhood trauma and death-wish rebellion weren't the subjects of her thesis. The Mikaelsons were - and if she didn't have Old Man Mikaelson, she didn't have a thesis at all.

"Fine. Deal...or whatever. I'll owe you, Davina, just let me talk to Mikael. Though...are you sure that magic bracelet of yours will keep him from kebabbing me with that staff?"

Davina assured her. "He's all yours. But like I said, there's nothing but evil in Klaus' heart. Mikael knows that best."

"I'll make my own conclusions about Mikael," Cami said, a bit defensively.

"Don't listen to her alienist lies," Mikael said, now standing behind Davina. "Like poison dripped into the ear, she talks about my bastard son. But you, little witch, have the power to see the truth, as I do now. I am strong. Niklaus is weak. If this...woman...sides with my son, then she is weak as well."

Cami shoved her notebook in Mikael's face. "I'd rather be weak that unaccountable to those I've hurt," she said.

The Original laughed. "You're wasting your time, _Camille_. My son is irredeemable."

"I choose not to believe that."

Mikael grunted, spinning his staff again. Then he lobbed it full force into a nearby tree.

It stood there, fixed, quivering ominously.

A threat...in true Mikaelson style.

"Like father, like son," Cami mumbled, double-clicking her pen. She turned then to Davina. "Charming company," she quipped. "Why are you hanging around him again?"

The witch frowned. "He's training me, Cami. I'm getting stronger. I never want to be weak again."

"Fair enough...but buy a gym membership, Davina. Don't book Papa Original as your personal trainer."

She plucked her staff from the ground. "I'm not scared of Mikael. I brought him back. I control him. I've got this, Cami."

Cami told herself the same. Interview with the 1000-year-old vampire? No problem! You can do this, Cami!

 _You've got this._


	19. End of Day Five

The thing about cabins is there's always a woodpile somewhere nearby. Cami located a stump and sat herself down, after relocating the chopping ax of course. She didn't need any weapons in sight tempting Mikael to take a swing at her and end their chat early.

Unfortunately, Mikael was as resourceful as his admittedly dagger-happy hybrid son. He had procured a carving knife and now stood, looming in the yard before her, fashioning himself a new battle staff and pretending not to listen to her pre-interview rundown.

"...and nothing we discuss will be revealed to anyone without your permission."

Mikael made a noise. Had he grunted in agreement? Or just grunted?

"...and Davina has only allowed me an hour so play nice for an hour and we're done."

Mikael swatted a fly but said nothing.

"...so does that sound amenable to you? Can we start?"

Mikael pulled his staff closer for inspection and said nothing still. Cami sighed. "Look, I know talking consent with a mind-compelling vampire is irony at its best, but I need you to agree to this before we can begin."

She wasn't sure what she had said differently this time, but Mikael finally looked up. "How amusing that you talk about free will and yet I remain a slave to that witching, denied my true purpose on this earth, to rid it of my abhorrent son."

Cami sat forward. "Davina has you magically tethered because she's good, and cares about people, and doesn't want to see you kill said people on your insane murder quest."

Mikael laughed. "You talk about good and evil as if your stunted human mind has any concept of them at all. What my wife, Esther, forced upon this earth when she turned our children into vampires —that was evil. When she laid with a beast and bred the abomination Niklaus — that was evil. So tell me this, Camille: is not he who stands in the way of me amending these evils not evil himself?"

Cami froze. If moral panic was an actual fear, then she was afraid. She slowly rose from her stump, easing her notebook closed. There was no need for notetaking; she wasn't about to forget the strange anxiety she felt now, as if by some slim chance, Mikael was right.

"No way," she insisted. "Terrifying children is wrong. Hunting them is wrong. And killing Klaus for his mother's sins is the textbook definition of wrong."

"There is no need to judge Klaus for anyone's sins but his own," Mikael said. "How odd, that it is I who should remind you of that. Your fondness for my bastard son has clearly clouded your judgment. How can you ever hope to help the truly innocent, when you waste your time on the redemption of the damned?"

"No one is irredeemable," she told him. "Not even you. Can't you remember a time when you were happy? Before all the family drama? Why should that happiness be unattainable, even to you? Even now?"

Mikael looked up again, a faraway look in his eyes. "This joy you speak of; one moment only do I recall it. My first child. My favorite. She had a warrior's heart...and her mother's beauty. She was my pride and joy."

Very slowly, Cami sat back on her stump. "Elijah told me your eldest died of plague."

"The gods were jealous! If only I had been by her side, not abroad in battle when they stole her away."

"Her?"

"Freya."

Cami couldn't help it. She pulled open her notes. "The eldest Mikaelson was a girl? Why didn't the others mention this?"

Mikael snorted. "The others never held a candle to Freya. Once, perhaps, I thought Niklaus had a warrior's heart, but he failed me too many times. What joy indeed to discover the weakling wasn't my blood!"

Cami watched carefully as Mikael tested the balance of his wooden staff. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said. And she meant it. "I know how it feels when death touches a family and I know that grief never truly goes away. Did you know I had a brother who died? A twin brother."

"Spare me," Mikael muttered. "You humans insult me by comparing your grief to mine. Death comes for you, ending your life - ending your torment. But I have grieved Freya for more lifetimes than you can imagine."

In silence, Cami wrote down Mikael's words. He was indeed reminding her of Klaus; flashes of truth and clarity among the raging violence. It annoyed her. She was the psychologist! And here Mikael was, asking the hard questions. Scrambling her head. Making her doubt.

"Okay," she said, determined to take charge. "New topic then. I may be a human, destined to die, a death clock ticking down at all times, but I still stop to smell the roses once in a while. So what's your excuse. What's with the endless crusade to destroy your family? You've been brought back from death; given a second chance. Why not use this extra time to do...oh, I don't know. Anything else?"

"What else is there?" Mikael mumbled.

"Got any hobbies? You know, things you enjoy your time doing?"

"I enjoy chasing down my children like vermin."

"Other things," Cami said. "And crafting weapons to kill said children doesn't count either."

Mikael chuckled. "I grow to admire you, Camille. A cat's tongue, and a boar's heart. Entirely unlike my dear wife, Esther. She had a kind heart...once. Now, however, I relish that she is dead."

"Oh..." It was Cami's turn to laugh. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?'

"That Esther's alive."

Mikael plunged his staff into the ground. "So the viper sheds her skin again. No matter. Whatever fondness I once felt for my wife withered when I learned she betrayed me with a beast."

"The other man, you mean. Klaus' real father. You know, you talk so much about the grief of losing a child, but have you ever stopped to consider the pain you put Klaus through by killing his biological father? By denying Klaus the chance to grow the same bond you had with Freya?"

"Don't speak her name!" Mikael roared. "You sit there, tall and righteous, pretending to understand me. But in doing so, you hide from your own demons, and the questions without answers, which haunt you in your dreams. I did not lie when I said you were so unlike Esther. Esther made monsters of her family so they could be strong. Because she had lost children and never wanted to feel that loss again. Vile creations asides, Esther acted on her emotions. You, Camille, hide behind yours. Protect Klaus all you want. Try to turn me from my path. But the only way to fight evil is to embrace it. A lesson you might benefit to learn."

Cami's eyes fluttered open wide, and on her tiny stump she felt immensely small. "I think we're done here," she said, her voice a peep. "I...I should go."

"Not so fast," Mikael growled, suddenly growing feral. "Now that your simpering sermon is over, the only thing standing in my way is the magical hold the witch has over me."

Cami shrugged. "And what? You want me to tell Davina to let you free?"

"...Not quite."

In a flash, Mikael moved, kicking up earth and he grabbed Cami around the throat, his fingers digging into her neck. Her notebook fell from her hand, landing in the loamy dirt.

As Cami tried to reach for it, Mikael held her higher, laughing just as Davina appeared, rushing from the cabin right on cue. "Let's her go," she demanded, gripping her magical bracelet. "I command it."

But Mikael just laughed. "Your power is broken, little witch! Seems someone's yanked the leash from you."

As Cami continued to struggle in Mikael's clutches, Davina began to panic. Mikael was right; she had lost all control over him in an instant. "It's not possible. Only another witch could deactivate my bracelet. Who could have...Kaleb?"

The rogue witch emerged from the treeline, his head lowered. "It's Kol, love. And I'm truly sorry. But mother made me..."

Davina couldn't believe it. "You're a Mikaelson?"

"And loyal Mikaelson," Mikael added with a sneer. Then he tightened his grip on Cami until her face was sweaty and pink. "Now that I have you, you'll be the bait for Niklaus! And with the White Oak Stake, I will end this, once and for all...!"

Cami screamed as Mikael sped forward, fangs bared, aiming for her throat. She closed her eyes, expecting the worse, but the next thing she felt was the ground rising to meet her.

She collapsed, safe and unharmed, on the soft earth. Some unseen force had sent Mikael to the ground, and he remained there, frozen on his knees in wonder at its power. Then a figure, a kind hand, helped her to her feet.

"Excuse him," the voice said. "He's grown a bit grumpy with age."

Accepting the woman's hand, Cami looked up into her blue eyes. The ones that reminded Cami of Klaus.

It was the woman from Jackson Square. The woman she had thought was homeless.

Mikael spoke her name. "Freya...?"

"Hello, father," she said with a smile. "I'm back for the family reunion."


	20. Day Six

Day six and Camille awoke with the worst headache of her life. She flopped over in bed, staring at the ceiling, squinting through the morning light. What the heck had happened yesterday? The last thing she remembered was driving out past the bayou to meet up with Davina to talk about Kaleb - who was really Kol - who was working with his mother, Esther. who could honestly be anyone at this point because she was a body-swapping witch.

No wonder she had a headache!

By the time the room stopped spinning, she had returned to bed with her computer and a fresh cup of coffee. She scanned through her email and research calendar, reliving the day before, but her observations only took her to the point of interviewing Mikael. How she ended that interview - and quite honestly how she was even alive after poking the bear - Cami had no clue.

She powered her computer down. With only one day left before her proposal was due, her project - and her life - were falling apart.

Cami thought about throwing in the towel. Through her own fault alone, she had managed to wedge herself smack dab center in the middle of a Mikaelson civil war. Between Esther, Mikael, and all the siblings in between, she probably wasn't about to live long enough to finish her Master's degree. Might as well spend her remaining time putting herself through some therapy!

By noon - coffee and headache now gone - she had made up her mind. She was done. Like her adviser Vincent had said, the Mikaelson family were lost long before she found them. At this point, she was merely exploiting their dysfunction for her own benefit, like the host of some twisted reality show.

Powering up her laptop again, she began to compose an email to her adviser, to thank him for his time and to let him know her decision. But then her cell rang.

It was Elijah.

Cami tried not to sound too guilty over the phone. "Hey, I know you went way, way out of your way this week to help me, but I'm quitting the project. I'm officially tossing my thesis in the trash."

Elijah may have actually chuckled. "Well, that is a shame to hear, because I quite enjoyed reading what you had."

Cami coughed. "I'm sorry - what? You ready my proposal?"

"Ordinary People? I believe that's the one. A rather reductive title, I'll admit. The thesis it conceals, however, is admirable, as I was sure to mention to you last night."

Last night. Last night? "Elijah, what are talking about?"

"Last evening? Don't you recall: There was an...incident. That I had. In my mind. I needed your help."

Cami rolled off her bed, phone still pressed to her ear. Searching through the chaos of her apartment, she managed to locate her bag by the door and dug around for her research notebook.

It was missing. The spiral-bound book that contained all her notes was nowhere to be seen.

Had she lost it? Had she actually given it Elijah?

She just didn't remember.

"Are you free?" she asked him. "I think we should meet up and talk in person."

"I couldn't agree more," he said. " In fact, that is why I called. It happened again. I saw it."

"Saw what?"

"The Red Door."

The phone slipped slightly from Cami's ear. "You're at the Compound? I'll be right there."

* * *

Cami called Davina on her way to see Elijah. "What the hell happened yesterday?" she asked the witch.

"I was just about to ask you the same!" cried Davina. "That woman took Mikael and now I can't control him anymore. I can't even locate him with a spell!"

Cami paused for traffic on the corner of Royal. "What woman, Davina? Was Esther at the cabin?"

"You don't remember her? She had long blonde hair and she was powerful Cami. Like, really powerful. I've never met a witch before who gave off power like that."

"Wait, this mystery woman. Witch. Person. Did she save me from Mikael? The last thing I remember is about to be chomped."

"Yeah, she did some weird magic healing thing to you and sent you on your way. You really don't remember?"

"Well, if I happen to run into Mikael in the Quarter, I'm sure it'll all come back," Cami said. "Stay safe, Davina. I'll check in later."

* * *

Cami knew it was an ordinary Thursday when she walked in on Klaus and Hayley arguing. "I _am_ coping," Hayley was saying. "And you and Elijah don't get to judge me for how I do it!"

"All I'm saying, Hayley, is maybe don't go wandering the bloody Quarter alone at night when half my family wants the other half dead!"

"So much for the 'peace' you promised to bring to New Orleans, Klaus. Maybe the witch is right, Maybe the world would be better if all the vampires were gone."

Klaus growled. "You can't be serious, Hayley. What that witch is offering...tell me you're not considering it."

"No, Klaus, I'm not considering her offer. But Lenore has a point."

Cami made herself known. "Lots of questions - but first. Whose Lenore?"

Hayley rolled her eyes, explaining. "Lenore is Esther. She's body-jumped again."

"And she will continue to do so until we put her out of her misery," Klaus added.

"Your mother, your problem," Hayley said. Then she stormed through the Compound gates.

Klaus was left alone by the fountain with Camille. He lowered his voice, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Leave Hayley to me. I'll fix this discord between us. You focus your energies on my brother. He's putting us all on edge."

He lifted his eyes to the balcony and Cami's followed. There was a shadow watching them, lurking in the doorway above. It was Elijah.

Klaus squeezed her shoulder in encouragement and followed after Hayley. "Good luck."

* * *

"You sounded so chipper over the phone, I had no idea you were having problems."

As Cami claimed the armchair, Elijah stood, hand in his pocket, and gazed over the railing and down into the courtyard below ."'Problem' implies there is a solution," he said solemnly. "But what my mother taught me - showed me - in the time she held me captive, is that I've always been like this. There is no solution to what I am."

"And what is that?" Cami asked.

Elijah turned. "A monster."

He picked up a notebook from the table nearby - spiral bound and well worn - and handed it to Camille. "I stand by what I said earlier" he confessed. "Your thesis is admirable, but it is also flawed. People, yes, can change, and humans have immense potential for forgiveness and growth. But there are no humans in House Mikaelson, Cami. Not for some thousand years."

Cami didn't have words. Where was the Elijah was the start of the week? The one who had all but moved heaven itself to get his family in the same room together. The one who has such optimism, even if it had calm and even-keeled.

Not for the first time, she felt a fraud. A fake psychologist. A failed grad student. There was a difference between the personality quirks she'd discussed with Elijah before and the very real damage his mother had done to him now. And Elijah was right; there was no solution. No immediate one, at least. Nothing fast that would satisfy Klaus and nothing permanent that would satisfy her adviser.

"I am sorry you had to experience this," was all she could say. "I can be an ear if you need one, or even a shoulder. But the only one who can shut your Red Door, Elijah, is you."

He turned back to the balcony; such a lonely perch. "It seems the week hasn't gone quite right for either of us, has it?"

"You mean my proposal?" She laughed. "When my old adviser dropped dead I should have taken the hint. This whole Mikaelson Papers project was never gonna get off the ground. I mean, it's hard to write a thesis about vampires when you can't really use the word! If Vincent Griffith didn't already think I was a childish amateur, he certainly would when he read my proposal."

Elijah raised his eyes. "Griffith, you said?"

"Yeah, my new adviser. He's humorless and intense but he's an expert."

"An expert in manipulation," came voice. It was Kaleb —Kol — with Marcel at his side. They strode into the room, causing Elijah to turn. Stranger still, Klaus was with them, and Hayley looking murderous.

"I'm no longer doing group sessions," Cami said. "...But I get the feeling you're all here for something else."

A subtle look passed between Hayley and Elijah, then Cami watched Klaus join in. Whatever secret the three of them had wasn't about to be so secret anymore.

"Finn knows," Klaus told the room.

"Knows what?" Cami asked. It was like the others had forgotten she was there.

"Tell him," Klaus told Marcel. He meant Elijah.

Marcel tucked his hands under his arms. "Believe it or not, Kol just saved my ass. Your momma's boy brother, Elijah, hijacked my crew and knocked me around good. He wanted information. About the baby."

Cami was again left forgotten in her armchair as Elijah's eyes slipped from Hayley to Klaus. "Is this true?" he asked Klaus.

"Yes, it's true, so the real question is what are we going to do about it? Marcel's been compelled. He knows nothing to tell. But something tells me Finn is close already to finding our little secret."

Interesting, Cami thought. _Finding_ not _finding out_.

"Too many people know already," Hayley said. "The only way now to protect our secret is to kill the one trying to uncover it."

She was appealing directly to Klaus. There were a lot of people in a room, but "the secret" was clearly between them. He stood close to her. Touched her arm. Took her shoulder. "I like how you think, little wolf," he said. "But unfortunately, if we kill Finn he'll just jump bodies, so we must be smart. Especially if the poor soul my wretched brother embodies next is stronger than Vincent Griffith."

Elijah glared so intently the room chilled. "Niklaus, tell me you did not mean to suggest that our brother is currently in the body of one Vincent Griffith."

Klaus frowned. "Problem?"

"Definitely," peeped Camille.


	21. Day Six, Part 2

"Too many people know already," Hayley said. "The only way now to protect our secret is to kill the one trying to uncover it."

Cami still had to wonder what this "secret" was, and what the soft looks of concern between Klaus and Hayley really meant, but at the moment the gears in her head whirled loudly; she had an idea. The others saw Finn Mikaelson as some unstoppable monster, but she knew him as Vincent Griffith, her patient yet dedicated adviser - which just might be the key to his demise.

The conversation continued to fade in and out around her. "Unfortunately, if we kill Finn, he'll just jump bodies," Klaus was saying.

Then Elijah spoke, aggrieved. "Niklaus, tell me you did not mean to suggest that our brother is currently in the body of one Vincent Griffith?"

"Problem?"

Cami looked up, yanked from her thoughts. "Definitely," she said. "But I have a plan. A plan to put down Finn."

"Care to share?" asked Hayley.

"Well, it starts with me finishing my thesis."

The room grew silent; skeptical. Klaus was frowning, looking more than slightly annoyed. "I'm going to finish my thesis," she repeated for him.

"No, I heard you the first time, Camille, but would you like to explain how now is the time or place for this announcement? Did I not just reveal that my brother Finn is a hair's breadth from destroying this family from the inside out?"

"You did," she assured him, calmly coming to her feet. "Which I why I changed my mind. I'm not giving up on my thesis. I'll do my project, write the proposal, and invite my adviser to meet. The Mikaelson Papers will be in Vincent's hands by tomorrow."

"You mean Finn's hands," said Hayley. "Finn you fake adviser."

Cami smiled, proud of her plan. "Finn doesn't know what I know. He won't realize it's a trap."

Klaus shared another look with his brothers. "It just might work. Finn's been a slippery fool, but if Cami arranges a meeting with him, for once we'll know exactly where he is."

But Elijah was less optimistic. "Finn is hellbent on our destruction, Niklaus. Why would he turn away from that path for something as pedestrian as a thesis proposal? No offense, of course, Camille."

"None taken, " she said smiling. "I'm just happy to be of some assistance. Truth be told, I can't help but feel responsible for all this. I've kept you distracted this week with my silly sessions, and you, Elijah, I had you running around town like an errand boy. I guess I liked the attention; it was nice to feel...needed."

Klaus set a hand on her arm. "You are needed, Camille. Now more than ever. But if you go through with this tomorrow, you understand, yes? You'll be more than simply a helpful assistant. You'll be an accomplice to murder."

Cami looked around. "Wait - we're killing Finn? What happened to the fear of him body jumping?"

"That's where I'll come in, love," smirked Kol. He had tossed his long limbs onto the sofa with a flourish. "If you get me close enough to the old bore without him knowing, I can spell him good and put a hex on his body that won't let him jump around no more. Then, once we kill him, he'll be one and done and dead."

"It's an inspired plan," said Elijah. "If it works."

"You see, that's my problem with all this too," came Marcel hotly. "You're not just underestimating Finn, but Vincent too. I knew the man in the day; he was a powerful - and I mean powerful - witch. And now with Finn the Esther Fanboy behind the wheel, Finn's not going to hesitate to blow up Jackson Square the second he senses a trap."

"I'm not afraid; are any of you?" asked Cami. She looked around the room, to Kol and Elijah and Klaus. None moved. "Then it's settled."

"Not quite," said Hayley, uncrossing her arms. "What about your little McGuffin?"

"What is she talking about?" Klaus asked. He looked to Cami.

"She means my thesis; the proposal I'm planning to hand over to Finn. Hayley has a right to be worried; you all do. If I hand Finn my thesis, I'm handing over more than just paper," she said. "I'm handing him all of your secrets."

Klaus and Elijah shared a look. Even the youngest Mikaelson looked worried. "You can't go givin' Finn power like that," Kol said. "The only thing I fear more than him is what he'll do what info like that."

Elijah agreed. "And if our mother gains access to the Mikaelson Papers, she'll have all she needs to tear this family apart."

"Not to mention, she'll know the secret our family has been keeping," said Hayley. Again, she was looking at Klaus, then Elijah and even Marcel had caught on.

"Time out," he announced. "The three of you have been making eyes at each other all day – and not the sexy kind. Care to share with the rest of the class?"

"Yeah, what gives?" whined Kol. "I always knew my brothers had their secrets, but what's so important the Wolf Girl gets to know but not me? I'm family."

Hayley lurched forward. "That 'Wolf Girl' has a name..." she growled.

"And Hayley is family," Elijah announced to the room. "We don't mean to keep you in the dark, Marcel - Kol - but this secret we share...if Finn finds out, all is lost."

It was Klaus' turn to have an idea. "Maybe that's it. If our secret is what Finns holds above our heads, then we take that advantage away."

"Meaning what?" said Hayley, arms folded once again.

Klaus took out his phone with excitement. "Nobody moves while I make a call. I'll be right back."

* * *

The atmosphere in the Mikaelson parlor was tense as the group waited for Klaus' return. Kol and Marcel circled the bar cart while Elijah seemed to creep closer to Hayley every second. But while Hayley, on the outside, seemed collected and cool, behind her eyes was a readiness to take on Finn that was quintessential Mikaelson to the core. "I can't do this anymore, this waiting. Tomorrow can't come soon enough." She was speaking for them all. Elijah tried to assure her, but his fingers were curling at his side, betraying his own agitation.

Alone in her chair at the center of the parlor, Cami couldn't help feeling she was in the waiting room of some psychiatrist's office. "Let's play a game," she offered. She knew it sounded like an absurd idea. "It's called 'I feel and I wish.' It'll make the time go faster."

Kol huffed. "Is this more undercover therapy?" he protested.

"Not if the therapist plays as well," she said. "It's easy; I promise. You simply turn to the person to your right and tell them two things: how you feel and what you wish."

"And does that person get to respond?" Elijah asked. He looked nervous at the prospect of having to participate.

"If they wish," Cami answered. "But briefly. This game more about listening to others and acknowledging how others feel. And like I said, it'll help pass the time until Klaus decides to tell us what he's scheming on the phone. I'll start. Kol? You ready?"

The youngest Mikaelson threw himself on the sofa with a fresh tumbler of ice. "I usually prefer Monopoly but alright, let's give this game a go. Lay it on me."

Cami had been thinking about this for a while. "I feel you're taking advantage of Davina and I wish you'd let her live her life Mikaelson-free for a change."

Kol shot up. "I don't much like this game! Games should be fun - this one's all judge-y. And mean."

"Well, it's your right to respond," she offered.

"Fine then I will," Kol huffed. "I feel you're ganging up on me – all of you - and I don't quite like it. In fact, I wish you'd stop treating me like some outside. I'm a bloody Mikaelson, ya know!"

"Well, I second Cami," said Marcel, naturally. "And since it's my turn: Cami, I'd wish you'd take your own advice and live your life Mikaelson-free for a change."

Cami frowned. "Oh? And tell me how you really feel."

"Same as always. I feel you're gonna end up dead one of these days if you keep inserting yourself in Mikaelson matters. I get the Good Samaritan thing, Cami; I do. But there's a whole city of people out there who need guidance and help and support. You know who doesn't need it? Thousand year vampires who ain't never gonna change! Don't give me that look. You know you're my girl, Camille. I'm trying to look out for you."

"How very noble," said Elijah, his hand on the back on Cami's chair. "Tell me, Marcellus, in this city, which during your long reign as tyrant you failed to bring even a modicum of peace to, where is there more safe for our dear Camille than by the side of me and my brother?"

"Uh-huh," Marcel smarted. "Hayley was smashed between the two of you and that didn't do her much good, now did it?"

Elijah and Hayley shared similar looks, but for different reasons. "Harsh," she said, "but true. What do you say to that, Elijah?"

"Oh, please," he blew out. "I wish you wouldn't fall for Marcel's rhetoric."

"And I wish you'd actually consider that he's right, Elijah. I know you want to keep everyone safe, but that's not possible anymore. Maybe it was; when I young and naïve and knocked up, but all our lives got a bit more complicated since then. I'm a hybrid and Klaus is…even more Klaus…and you, Elijah – you're not yourself anymore."

Elijah lowered his head, pained. "And yet I feel this distance you've built between us, Hayley, it's widening."

"...This distance...that I've built?"

"You seek to find a new family with the wolves. With Jackson -"

" _Jackson_ is an alpha, Elijah. He's a leader to a pack. A powerful pack, willing to help. And if you haven't noticed, this family is under attack. It could use all the allies it can get."

"I don't disagree, Hayley. But no one - no one - remains more dedicated to this family than the members of this family. Than Niklaus, and I, and -"

"Rebekah." It was Klaus, returned. He pocketed his phone, in much better spirits. "I've just spoken with our sister. She'll be here by morning, our littlest secret in tow."

Hayley looked up. "You're bringing Hope to New Orleans? That's not part of the plan, Klaus!"

"It's the most important part," he corrected her. "If she's here, she's protected. Finn can't put her hands on Hope without coming through all of us first. Now all that's left is for Camille to play her part tomorrow."

She nodded. "I'm ready," she said, standing. "Just one question. Who the hell is Hope?"


End file.
